GE “Forcing” Employees Into Chevy Volts

General Motors and General Electric are two companies that have been in the political crosshairs lately. GM stands accused of “crony capitalism,” while GE is under fire for paying no Federal income taxes in 2010. The two companies share more than that though, with GE placing an order for 12,000 Chevy Volts and other hybrid vehicles.

A memo leaked to Green Car Reports lays out GE’s plans for their new fleet of Volts, and as expected, it has some people crying foul.

The memo, sent to employees of GE Healthcare Americas team explains that all sedan, crossover, and minivan purchases in 2012 will be replaced by the Chevy Volt. Only field engineers are exempt from having to drive a company Volt.

GE will offer estimates for installation Level 2 Charging Stations, though all-gas use will be allowed when there is no electric option. Any employees who opt out of the Volt program will not be compensated for their expenses. Those who do choose to drive the Volt will be reimbursed for public charging and home charging costs, in addition to gas uses.

While some people are probably put off by having to drive a Volt, GE claims to have crunched the numbers and believes that in the long term, this will save the multi-national company big bucks. More than that though, GE is positioning itself as a big player in the EV charging market. Getting employees into Volts also means getting charging stations into homes.

It’s a bold move to be sure, and it will hopefully prove to be a boon to the Volt’s flagging sales numbers. GM had hoped to sell as many as 60,000 Volts in 2012, before dropping that number to 45,000. Will they even make that number though? Hard to tell, though GE’s business will go a long way towards giving the Volt some sales momentum.

About the Author

Christopher DeMorro A writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMIs, Chris can be found wrenching or writing- or else, he's running, because he's one of those crazy people who gets enjoyment from running insane distances.

Immelt, the GE CEO who invests in Communist China, has gotten his money from Obama and now he forces employees to drive Volts- and GM got theirpayoff from Obama also—–When GM went bankrupt I lost more than 300 hundred shares—-you would think since they are doning so well they would pay back the former investers. Obama didn’t give me any money—-I worked hard for my $$$—-Immelt dropped dividend to 10 cents —–so many retirees had to sell at a loss——-BUNCH OF CROOKS–and the little person pays and pays—–

Loen

As a share owner you were a company owner. Your money was used to pay off debt holders (i.e. bond holders). If a privately held company went belly up who should get the money first, the family who owns it or its creditors. Obviously, it would be the creditors. You were allowed to vote for the board of directors, the auditors, etc. That is why you didn’t get your money back. You owned the company! You owed the bond holders money!!

sandogbob

Except the bondholders DIDN’T get there money first. It seems the law was “overlooked” in favor of cronies of Obama who got the meat of of carcass leaving the bones to the rest of the public.

bpmpls

Loen- you are an ignorant fool. You must be a liberal. The ‘restructure/bankruptcy” that GM went through was mandated by the current administration so that the unions who were unsecured bondholders got their money first and then gave additional ownership into the ‘new’ company. The secured bondholders (who should have been first in line at bankruptcy) along with everyone else were screwed. The whole process was to continue to secure union money and support for the Obama administration. Look up the facts. Moron

ATM

and more specifically that move by the Obama administration also set the precedent for the government to be able to nullify all contractual rights since secured bondholders and preferred stockholders held positions superior to all common shareholders and unsecured creditors (the unions).

Now any claim you think you have to anything is subject to governmental change at any point in time. In Europe the EU govt has just retroactively changed their rules as well making themselves secured holders of Greek debt and anyone else who was secured, unsecured.

Wow!!! It must be REEEEAL tough calling folks names while you hide behind your internet anonymity. Grow up…maybe then someone will give an ounce of weight to anything you type. Moreover, the rest of us won’t think you’re a coward, but that’s you’re deal. Good luck.

Dan

Well obviously you didn’t read the news because the bondholders were not first in line. The UAW was moved up and bond-holders were thrown off the bus by the Obama administration, over-riding years of banruptcy standings.

Truth

Loen:
A few IMPORTANT facts you left out. The order of repayment/reorganization for bankrupt company is SUPPOSED to be: Bond Holders (100%), secured lenders, common stock, and all contracts are voided and have to start over. But, What happened is O B A M A unconstitutionally stepped in and FORCED/Coerced/threatened/intimidated the bond holders into take 25 cents on the dollar (hurted retired people living on bonds), canceled all existing common stock, EXCEPT that held by unions and forced GM to recognize the UAW contracts. ALL with taxpayer money that will never be fully repaid. MaryLou’s money was first used to pay-off the UAW, then give the bondholders 25 cents on every dollar they were owed EVEN in Bankruptcy!!! Get your facts straight…

The GM bankrupcy wasn’t typical because it was blatently illegal. It turned 100 years of settled bankrupcy law on its head and was a wakeup call to the gangster government style of the Chicago Gang. I personally know some of the hedge fund managers who were threatened with personal and professional destruction, audits, smear campaigns unless they caved and sold out on the cheap. As a businessman, its not a hard decision to sell out when the full weight of the Chicago Gang backed up by the Federal government has determined that you must be destroyed for the common good. The funny thing about it was that the Chicago Gang screwed the public pension funds who were the main investors with the hedge funds. At the end of the day it was blue on blue warfare as the UAW private unions screwed the SEIU public unions.

Erik

Actually, the bond holders were screwed by Obama as well, and GM was given to (drumroll please)
the UAW.

chenn

Unfortunately, that is not how it happened. The bondholders were not repaid. The government broke the rule of law, robbed the bondholders and used the money to pay off the unions.

John

Unfortunately for the bondholders, they were also cut out of the deal and received nothing for their holdings. Only the unions were made whole at GM while the bond and stockholders got the shaft.

John

Loen, you’re kidding, right?

Check US bankrupcy law. Common shareholders are at the very bottom of the pile. A bondholder is no different from any other lender. When they negotiate loaning money to a company (ie. buy a bond), they negotiate terms, including whether or not the debt is secured, like when a bank has a lien on your house for the mortgage. Is this beginning to sound familiar????

What happened is King Obama didn’t like the original reorganization plan the original GM put forward so he didn’t just force a bankruptcy. No, he took all of the assets of the original company and moved them to a new entity that was owned by a combination of the government, Canada and, who else??? The United Auto Workers!!

So, the common stockholders got crap, the “secured creditors”, aka the Bondholders got a very watered down payback and the glorious O’Shi!-Head successfully threw seveal hundred years of US Bankruptcy laws and precidents down the sewer.

Oh, and when someone tells you he had to do this to avoid the meltdown it would cause when all the GM creditors got screwed, please point out that with the exception of the UAW, that’s exactly what happened to all of them. They got left behind in the old GM along with all the common stockholders.

But that’s all OK because it’s Obama and the democrats. What a crock of you know what!

Timothy Singleton

There is very little law left in the actions of this government. I was given to understand that many of these bonds were like old railroad equipment bonds, where the equipment purchased with the money raised actually stood as collateral for the bond outside of the general obligations of the company.
The Administration just ripped through all those laws and did what they wished. If this is true, this was not a bailout, but a robbery on the part of the Obama administration.

Most of the bondholders that held stock in GM were retirement funds for middle class workers when GM was considered a Blue Chip Stock, Obama did indeed screw screw over the retirements of millions of lower to middle class workers by destroying thier IRA Mutual Funs that invested in GM..

Roper: So now you’d give the Devil benefit of law!
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you — where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast — man’s laws, not God’s — and if you cut them down — and you’re just the man to do it — d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.

We now lack the protection of the law.

Scott

The bondholders at GM got screwed by Obama. They were not 1st in line as they should have been. Obama took their ownership, publicly proclaimed them as greedy, and used it to pay off the UAW.

Corp Finance Guy

To Loen: Partially right. The problem is that the bond holders did NOT get paid off entirely. The primacy of credit was IGNORED in the restructuring and the holders were forced to get pennies on the dollar by the Obama administration. You say boohoo to the bondholders? Well, wake up…the bondholders were you and me if we had any of our 401K’s/IRA’s or other investments in bond funds. You and I took the loss. Who gained? An Italian car maker and the unions. Basically, our administration robbed us to pay off the unions and promote the green agenda. The alternative? GM and Chrysler would have still come out of bankruptcy, and the bondholders (you and me) would not have been robbed.

Kevin

Sorry, Loen, but you’re wrong on one point. The GM bondholders got screwed. They lost pretty much all of their investment while the UAW pension plans were made whole by Obama. The bondholders were creditors, but they didn’t get paid. So, the average bond investor got the shaft while Obama’s union buddies were protected. GM should have filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganized like any other failed corporation in America.

JackFalstaff

I’m sorry but had this been a normal bankruptcy, bond holders would have been the first to be paid off and stockholders last. That said, since the company did not go out of business, again under normal bankruptcy, stockholders would hold shares in the company, probably of less value, but their shares would not be worthless, see http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/bankrupt.htm.
In this case, a lot of political influence went into the bankruptcy so …

Jay

Not true. The Obama Admin, at the barrel of a gun, forced the stockholders to sell/give their shares to the Union and Government instead of going through bankruptcy, which would have potentially let this gentleman and MANY OTHERS recoup some of their money, instead, his money was given to the Union, the same Union which bankrolled Obama and is bankrupting the company again…three cheers for worthless union employees who get the government to steal from private individuals on their behalf!

steve8714

Bond holders got screwed in favor of “stake holders”, specifically the UAW and the Government.

Rank

Typically, the Unions do not get taken care of first! Well, except for those unions close to the current person in the White House.

Plurb

So is Obamaie going to lend ACORN to Romney?

Marco

Leon = uninformed liberal moron spewing the party line. Forgive him Lord for he knows not what he does.

Rick

I am sorry to read of your loss, and of all those who have lost since this Communist in the White House has taken it upon himnself to single handedly destroy American Capitalism and ALL who have prospered by it…..And MOST of us are NOT the Millionaires and Billionaires Obama routinely bashes, but just regular people who try to make a better life for ourselves. It is disgusting to think this Marxist has ANY chance at all or being re-elected.

PO’ed GM debt holder

Loen, the debt holders were NOT given the proper control of the bankrupt company as you state. They SHOULD have been, but they weren’t. Instead the debt holders’ shares were stolen from them and given to the UAW. THAT is why the sham “reorganization” should be nullified and a proper reorganization should be brought to the fore.

Xenophon10

Why did you buy in the first place? You gambled, and you lost.

NICHOLAS

during 100 years government motors was investment grade!
the obama administration stole multi billions from the bond and stock owners!

The Republican candidates all have one thing going for them: none of them are Obama.

But other than that, none have very much to recommend them.

If this is the best lineup that the Republican party can muster up, then our country is in far worse shape than merely having a crypto-marxist asshat in the White House would signify on its own.

I once saw a bumper sticker that said “The only thing worse than a Republican is a Democrat.” At the time I laughed. Now I’m not so such it was a joke.

Nick

Bookkeeper. is on this train? AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH

J. king

Immelt is a lobbyist with a CEO title. He is selling us, the AMERICAN taxpayer, out for his and the shareholders of GE’s benefit. He doesn’t give a sh*t about you or me along with the other 300 plus million americans. You still need to charge those volts (and other electric type autos like Fiskers and leafs) into the power grid. Hmmm…how do we power those power plants again? Burning fossil fuels and dangerously stockpiling nuclear waste of course whilst not presenting a solution to those problems. Choice and competition my *ss. apparently, you have to force things, ideas, products down people’s throats. It worked well for the soviets. i just wish i was born then to experience their utopia and equally enjoy everyone’s misery.

riordon

GE needs to build a windmill at every employee’s home to charge their cars and I’m sure the economy will take off like a rocket! Oh my God, I hope Immelt doesn’t read this!

thinkagain

J. King: Bravo!
I am glad see someone else talk about the energy needed to charge the fuel cells. Another thing to consider is how to safely dispose of battery that has exceeded its useful life. What will they do with all of that lead and acid. Ground water contamination will be a major problem.

T Adkins

lead acid batteries are 98% recyclable and to my knowledge the primary battery in all of the cars, GE is looking at, are NOT lead acid. Most EVs or hybrids are using Nickle metal Hydride or Lithium ion batteries.

Jerry Normandin

If you are going to get the max mpg out of a volt you need to charge it. I would go with a 240v system since it will charge in 4hrs. GM claims it costs @ $1.38 per charge. So the cost of one tank of gas gets you the first 40 miles for the day. Yes this puts an added load on the grid and power is gonna come from somewhere. But it’s a little cheaper. I held off trading in my Jeep because I don’t know what kind of longevity is expected out of a electric drive system. Also, I work as a Systems Engineer. I know first hand that no matter how well an electronic device is built, the life of when the device performing optimally is limited. It’s a fact of life. Good Electrolytics have a life of around 5k hours.
That’s why the high end stereo you purchased in the 80s sounds like crap today. As time goes on the drive system in the volt will become less efficient. I used to commute 1.5hrs each way. That means in less than 5years the drive system is gonna have issues. I took an engineering job for less pay and a shorter commute, and enjoy driving my Jeep Wrangler.
I think diesel is the way to go. The drive train is built to last.
If electric drive is going to take off we would need to invest in research of alternate electrolytic formulas, denser batteries. And a micro turbine generator. Electric generators perform best at a constant rpm. A micro turbine would be ideal. But first the basics… electrolytics that won’t break down so fast.

Ho Bama

Exactly right. Bankruptcy law says that the shareholders are first in line. Ob*ma stole your money. He gave you 11 cents on the dollar and gave over 50% of the company to the unions, and the next biggest chunks to the US and Canadian governments. He should have been impeached for this alone. You got hosed and have every right to be white hot angry with the entire Democrat Party, which is now rotten and corrupt to the core, especially since the last vestiges of moderate Democrats got wiped out in 2010.

Anyone but Ob*ma 2012!

Mark

No common stock holders are very close to the bottom. You got Lawyers first, employees second, secured lien holder’s third bond holders fourth preferred stock 5th, and common stock dead last.

I may have missed a few debt categories (pensioner’s pensions for instance), but you get the idea.

Ray

I didn’t see unions on that list.
How did they get to the front of the line?
Oh, I forgot about the clause in the law that says if you give enough money to the Obama, line jumping is permitted.

Immelt, while he’s definitely not near as good as Welch was, (but of course, these are not the same economic times either, to be fair,) is only doing what countless other CEOs have done to us, by investing in China and other foreign countries. I don’t think your statement is fair to him. Being a multi-national corporation means, duh, that they invest multi-nationally, and receive the benefits of expanded markets, and of course, lower non-unionized labor costs.
I feel for your loss in GM’s bankruptcy. I didn’t realize that they could get away with not reimbursing you for your stock. Did your stock just go worthless, or did you sell it because of rules making it have to be sold, or did you just sell it and suffered a loss because you needed the money? I am sorry, I am very curious about all this, because I am a former GE employee who still owns their stock for the simple reason that it is only worth about a third of what it was when I bought the last $5000 worth, about 83 shares, in 2000. At that time, I had thought to buy 100 shares or so to add to my small holdings which had grown from 3 shares of an ESOP. With all the splits GE historically had, I erroneously believed I was making a good investment. Turns out, I put up my money to make nothing all these years, and if I was to sell those 83 shares, I would suffer a great loss.
I didn’t realize the dividend went to 10 cents. Well, it was .15 last October and is now at .17. I think Immelt was handed a company that was facing tremendous losses in the Capital division, and during the past 10 years we all know our economy has not been what it used to be, like at the end of the nineties when it was steaming ahead like there was no tomorrow. I blame the 545 politicians in DC for our troubles. We should vote them all out, and keep doing it until we get some good ones who put us first before their bids to get elected, and reelected, which are the two most important things to them. It is certainly not representing the people.
Thanks for your comment.

Dphoneman

Holding on to bad stocks because you are in a loss position is very unwise. Unless you have good reason to believe the stocks will quickly rebound, you are much better off taking the loss (it’s a tax write off also) and using the money to buy stocks which are performing good. In other words, put your resources into something that IS going to make you the most money going forward. Don’t just listen to me, ask any financial advisor.

Buck Bradley

Buy high sell low. Great strategy there….

Former Yamaha/Polaris Dealer

Keith,

I used to employ 6 people at my Yamaha/Polaris shop from ’07 to ’10. My flooring line was financed by GE Capital by mandate from Yamaha & Polaris (Polaris Acceptance aka GE Cap). But in Q4 ’08 & Q1 ’09, GE Capital authorized 120+ machines being sent to my shop when it was clearly outside my biz plan, which GE had to approve, which biz plan was based on ’05-’06 anomalous sales that I could sell 14 units per month overall with only 1-4 units during the harsh winters. I asked the inventory to stop coming & Yamaha said “No!” The two companies (Yamaha & GE) jammed 8 months of inventory on me in a little over six weeks of living hell when the country KNEW we were going into a depression. Why would GE Capital expose themselves to so much rick when they knew I couldn’t sell the units, pay them off and was now a likely candidate for Chap 11 BK or Chap 7 BK due to my PERSONAL GUARANTEE? Answer: The $139,000,000,000 loan guarantee GE got in October 2008! GE Capital was guaranteed payment by the U.S. Taxpayer even if, scratch that, especially if I went BK!!!! With no risk, GE Cap loaded me down with inventory, destroyed my business and I contemplated suicide after having lost everything. Now think, how many ATV, motorcycle, RV, etc., dealers did you see go out of business in 2009-2010? Answer: GE Capital authorized huge amounts of inventory (just like the Chrysler & GM dealers that got dumped on then cut loose by the manufacturer), so the dealers couldn’t make through the storm. But GE did. Yamaha did. Polaris did. Did you ever notice the GE feel good ad with Polaris?

GE Capital is EVIL to the core, Immelt is EVIL to the core!!!!! GE is incapable of doing the right thing for the right thing’s sake. Not all companies share GE’s ability to effectuate laws, government policies and own politicians like GE does. GE is worse than the Russian Mafia, and I sincerely mean just that!

dmockercy

holy crap!

SerfCityHereWeCome

I empathize for your horrible experience; amazing this could happen in what was so recently a free country. Please go public with it to draw attention to and raise awareness of this heinous tax-evading Stalinist outfit to hopefully bring it down with a blizzard of boycotts and regime change, and prevent anyone from ever going through your nightmare again. Thank you for sharing.

Carlos

Keith, I never heard of this, but I’d certainly like to know more. First, I am terribly sorry for what happened to you. That is unfortunate and I feel for your situation. It’s clear that there was a “moral hazard” problem with the loan guarantees extended by the US gov’t to GE Capital. Any time you absolve a lender from the dealing with the repercussions of bad loans, you will very predictably end up with a lot of bad debts. In this case, GE went further and intentionally allowed levels of inventory that they knew you couldn’t pay back. Unforgivable. There’s one thing I don’t understand in your explanation: Was your supplier (Polaris) able to force inventory down your throat so long as GE Capital (aka Polaris Acceptance) approved it – in spite of you saying that you did not want the inventory? I don’t see how a supplier can force you to take unlimited quantities of some product and then hold you responsible for payment without your acceptance, but then maybe there is something in the contract you signed that allowed it. Please provide some detail around this, since if they were allowed to force the inventory on you IN SPITE OF YOUR EXPLICIT NOTICE TO THEM THAT YOU DIDN’T WANT IT, then this is one of the most shocking stories I’ve ever heard. In any case, it was very wrong of GE – but the main culprit was the US gov’t for providing the loan guarantees.

woodNfish

If only you could let Immelt personally know how you feel about it. Wouldn’t that be great?

Carl

Sounds like GE can get up to far worse things than clever tax exemption. Downward-forcing of inventory is usually considered a sign of multi-level/pyramid schemes.

Phil Hansen

Investors have no right to complain about losses in the stock market. Playing the stock market is akin to playing the craps table in vegas. Its a gamble with inherent risks. You lost. Sorry.

Agreed but when the executive branch arbitrarily decided to break the bankruptcy law in favor of its cronies it can legitimately be called corruption

Bill M

Investors understand that better than you, evidently. It’s the cheating they object to. You know, when the President picks his base over the lawful debt holders. Last I heard there was a law against that. Too bad his DOJ is corrupt too.

RichW

You’re right about stockholders. But, it was the GM bondholders who got robbed in violation of the law. A bond is a contract, thus the name. Yet Obama’s federally orchistrated deal rewarded the UAW for its 2008 support of him by bailing out their troubled pension funds instead of keeping the contracts with bondholders. The whole GM bailout was done from TARP funds which were intended by congress to bail out financial firms with “troubled assets” – hardly the profile of a car company. So, Obama cheated both the bondholders AND the taxpayers. Since both houses of Congress worshiped the White House, there was nobody to stop Obama from misusing TARP money.

Brad

Except, ya know, George W started the auto bail out before he left office. But why let facts get in the way of a political argument.

Mikey

WRONG.

Bush started a bailout process but then halted it because it was considered to be a bad deal. Obama took it up, threw 200 gallons of gas on it, lit a match and forced it on the American public.

Nice try liberal, but this is ALL on Obama. But why let facts get in the way of a political argument?

Also screwed by our government

Yes, we were all had as GM preferred bondholders. We thought we were safe, that our government would protect us…like they did to Fannie Mae bondholders. We can ill afford to lose this retirement money. We are no longer productive and cannot make it up.

Ken

Nice try, but your analogy is flawed. When you go to vegas, you expect that the games are not rigged, in fact if they are, people at the casino go to jail. So to use your analogy correctly, I guess you support the idea of Obama going to jail.

woodNfish

I do. He’s a crook and so is most of his cabinet.

woodNfish

In fact giving it a little more thought, Obama and his (sarc)”Justice Dept” (/sarc) are guilty of crimes against humanity for the slaughter of thousands of iinnocent Mexicans through Fast & Furious. They should be tried and executed.

John

Phil,

Saying that the stock market is a gamble, so you can’t complain when you lose money, is like saying that cars use gas, so if someone siphons the gas out of your gas tank, you can’t complain.

The stock market is a way to invest. Yes, that carries some risks. What this President has done is play the rules to make everyone lose except the people who supported him — who won big at everyone else’s expense. If you think the fact that he fundamentally stole private investments to reward campaign supporters is okay because the stock market can be a gamble at times, you don’t have anything between your ears. Try thinking logically and putting things in perspective — you’ll look far less silly.

John

Phil,

Oh, and another way to look at it: You’re basically saying that anything a person invests in the stock market can be confiscated by the government at any time.

A lot of us who have retirement accounts that are based in the stock market would strongly disagree with you. Maybe you should get a real job and start learning how the world works before defending the indefensible. 🙂

WillRoberts

Let’s hope Romney explains this when debating Obama. Let’s hope the media gives him the chance to as well.

JohnDD

Well, George Carlin said “it isn’t a Bill of Rights, it is a Bill of privileges that can be taken away at any time. Just ask the Japanese.”

jeff

you are right there are inherent risks involved with investing… but there is stratigy to hedge your investements… with that said many people were invested in GM, my grandparents were in that group, who got paid CENTS ON THE DOLLAR FOR THEIR GM BONDS….. LEGALLY IT IS THE DEBT HOLDERS OF A COMPANY THAT GET PAID FIRST, AND IT WAS OBAMA WHO CHANGED THE RULES, SO THAT THE LABOR UNIONS WOULD GET THE BAIL OUT AND NOT THE INVESTORS…. WHAT OBAMA DID IS ILLEGAL… SO TO SAY ITS A CRAPS TABLE, IS DUMB… the investors WERE SCAMMED OUT OF THEIR MONEY BY THE GOVT…

wythe patriot

The BOND holders lost their a** in the GM deal.Has nothing to do with stock market.

Dan

In all fairness, they DO have a right when much of their loss was due to a violation of basic law by the President himself. To strong-arm bondholders to take a back seat to the union, when they legally were in front and entitled to being paid back before the UAW, was absolutely criminal. I cannot believe how Obama got off so easily for that. Of all the maddening actions this President has taken, this one infuriates me the most. Even more than Obamacare, though Obamacare will end up being more devastating to the country overall.

Billie Smith

GM’s bondholders have every right to complain because this administration broke contract law in order to cheat them and give their advantage to the UAW. This isn’t about taking a risk and losing. That was what happened to GM and the UAW. But when the law was broken and the president announced “he didn’t stand with the bondholders” he changed the rules that bond holders began the game with. He picked a different winner. A winner that he liked better because they give him lots of money. Maybe the UAW doesn’t care but the rest of America should because it could be you next. Are we a country of laws or not?

Matt C

They have plenty of right to complain when the government comes in and tramples all over decades of bankruptcy law precedent. Losses due to market risk? No. But the government picking winners and losers in the markets is a terrible, terrible precedent to set.

Mark Heath

Why the outrage and surprise?? This is classic Crony Fascism”. Just look up the definition of fascism and you decide if it is not the same as this GE/GM crooked deal, where significant campaign donations will end up in the Obama re-election campaign because of it. Obama is nothing but Mussolini with a dark tan. There is no real difference.

You had plenty of time to sell your GM shares, you’re the idiot that clung on to false hopes as the signs of bankruptcy were so blatant that my 4 year old mentioned it over her morning cheerios.

You realize that American companies employ you know….Americans and that part of a global economy means that you play nice. American companies buy parts from China, and employ AMERICANS to put stuff together. Do you really think that American manufacturers that employ AMERICANS to put cars and trucks together would be around if they didn’t buy from cheap sources?! You truly are a fool if you think otherwise.

Should more jobs be here in America? Sure. Is China artificially devaluing their Yuan (that’s their currency…I’m sure you’re too ignorant that) to make competing with them next to impossible…probably. But before you put the onus on everyone else, you might want to shut your computer off and throw it away as it was made mostly by parts from communist China you idiot. While you’re at it, shut off your TV (china), stop driving your car (gas from the dictators in the Middle East…gah!), and eating food from the grocery stores (those damn Mexicans and their cheap food).

It’s people like you that is everything wrong with America. You want what you want because you “deserve” it. Do yourself a favor and stop thinking.

Patrick

Dave, I was enjoying the adult discourse until I read your post. It became obvious to me that you are a paid troll. This is not an attack but an observation. Do us a favor. Re-read the post and then apologize for completely missing the point and insulting the poster . But, then again, when supporting corruption, this administration needs trolls such as yourself.

BadGuy

Dave, you have it wrong. Whatever a person decides regarding their stock, holding it, selling it, whatever, has nothing to do with a corrupt government stealing that stock. When Obama nationalized GM, ordering them to change CEO’s and then took all the companies assets and distributed them to his cronies, that was illegal. It is the epitomy of fascism/socialism. Yes, he should have been impeached, but our country has become so corrupt at every level of government and the general population has become so brainwashed into accepting it, people like you, that I fear there is no hope for the U.S. that I once loved.

goreshade

Love it or leave it.

A.Men

Corrupt GE and corrupt GM team up with corrupt Obama. Duh!

Jim

Maybe the government will soon be able to force people to buy the volt. If they can force you to buy health insurance then their is no restraint to prevent the government from forcing individuals to do anything they want.

Rguy

Are you terminally stupid? Wal-Mart and most retail corporate chains pretty much rely on cheap Chinese labor to build their crappy shit for you to buy. Who do you think Wal-Mart and Target et all give money to? Republicans. Don’t pretend like you actually give a shit. Unless you never shop or buy anything that was manufactured in China shut up about communism. News Flash, it’s 2012, not 1952.

Mikey

Speaking of terminally stupid.

Take a look at isle 7 in a Wal-Mart and isle 7 at almost ANY grocer and you will see the same items. This whole “DURRR Wal-Mart = CHINA” B.S. is getting old.

By the way, that computer you’re using right now to post? Most of the parts were made in……CHINA! That’s right hypocrite. You’re no better than the people you insult.

jimmy

MaryLou, I’m glad you said this first. You are so right. CRONY CAPITALISM AT ITS WORST.

Stephen

Oh boy…I can see how this is going to play out.
1. GE “forces” its employees to use Volts…
2. GM comes out with some press that states the “sales” of Volts are going through the roof….
3. The press (ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN) all regurgitate the huge bump in sales….
4. GM stock gets a BIG bump.
5. The POTUS comes out and says “hey look at the great sales of the Volts and the stock rise and states the Government will “NOW start to divest”, taking credit for the improvement in either the economy that drove the stock up or GM’s “resurgence” leading him into the November election.

Let’s watch and see….

EdG

So that’s why you are a member of the Occupy movement. You realize that the little people like you and me and everyone else is being screwed by corporations and their political enablers in Washington. See you at the next rally!

Julie

If you had bought preferred shares instead of common stock you would have gotten some of your money back.

David

Precisely. It’s a great looking car. And silent to drive. Sounds like a dream.

Evan Cowart

I doubt they are giving away free volts, you buy it and they pay you a certain amount each month. I have been a few years in field service and most no longer provide a car, you provide it and they sorta reimburse you, you must won’t get ahead in this game, trust me.

Sam

Yes its called the federal gov.

bob

Sure they are hiring…in China. The only Volts those employees see is through a cattle prod.

ma ma monkey

they are just go to college for 4 years and study math.

TexasPatriot

Remember a few years ago, when the starving Ethiopians REFUSED to eat MREs? Same thing here,

spector

Go back to college and get a degree in engineering?

BOB

GE won’t hire US citizens.

John

Bob,

Given a choice, no intelligent business owner would. The cost of American labor is RADICALLY inflated thanks to unions and Democrats and the mid-line Republicans who think that minimum wages don’t carry a cost and packing on Public benefits is free. Most of us are usually smarter than that, but some can’t figure it out.

Putting it in perspective: Foreign labor can design and build what we need for so much less that even with oil at over $100 a barrel, it can be shipped half way around the world and still cost a fraction of what American goods cost.

BOB

Nonsense, I worked for GE, it was about 40% H1B’s and these guys did absolutely NOTHING. Trust me they were some of the laziest bunch i’ve ever seen, but they just keep hiring them (which of course is against federal law unless you can prove you can’t find a US citizen to do the job).

The Bobster

Got one. I was replaced by a cheap H-1b before production was outsourced to China.

Steve

I was a field engineer for GE medical. The one job out of all of these that requires a reliable ride (I repaired MRI scanners for them). That speaks volumes about the reliability to get where you need to go when it counts that GE FE’s are exempt.

Jon

I don’t think they were thinking about reliability as much as they were thinking about the austere locations that they may have to drive to where using electricity isn’t as good of an option as using a nonelectric car.

BobEd

How can that matter…the Volt can be non-electric 100% of the time if you want, and it get’s 37 MPG on the road…….must be some other reason

jimm

The Government has already put you in debt for one, why not give you one.

The government is ALWAYS hiring…..matter of fact, they are the only ones hiring.
What do you expect when GE pays NO TAXES and GM is literally Government Motors……Nothing but good old fashioned Crony Capitalism. (and you wonder why REAL capitalism is dying and why Socialism is growing?)

Debt-enslaved robots: It’s not left vs right it is the Government vs YOU!!

“in 2014, we begin paying more in benefits than we collect in taxes”. Social Security Admin. Annual Benefit Statement 2001-2011. It the citizens of the US allow this, then we deserve what we get!

Joe

GE is hiring in China. Good luck!

Dan

No mention of the fact that GE and GM were both bailed out by Obama. Nope, the article just uncritically accepts GE’s unbelievable rationale.

Don’t you think the GM bond holders should be reimbursed their money before you get your so called free Volt? I guess you don’t understand your neighbors taxes are paying for these free volts. Check with Obama, if you are a registered democrap he might even buy your gas if you promise to vote for him.

Pete838

These are company cars. It isn’t like GE is forcing employees to buy Volts as their personal cars.

SerfCityHereWeCome

Wait till election time.

John West

Dolts drive volts …. have at er.

DaveVB

Nothing in life is free…..if you are old enough to go online and register for this site and type that comment, you are old enough to know better than to think a job at GE with a “free” Volt is a good idea for anybody!

Golly, I wonder if GE get’s tax credits on each car they buy? Because as taxpyers we don’t give enough.

DaveVB

If you r old enough to create an account here at this site and post your comment – you should know that there’s no such thing as a “free” volt in this description.

ettubloge

GE can hire because they got money the government took from me. Ayn Rand anybody?

LTCB

You couldn’t give one free to me. I wouldn’t want it sitting in my garage or my driveway. Nasty looking. Appear to be something an artist or dancer might want but, not an engineer or soldier. Everyone knows what you drive “says something” about how you view yourself or how you want others to view you. I’ve seen coffins just about as large as these things. How is a family person supposed to get their family anywhere in that thing? Guess you have to buy two and let the wife drive the other with the rest of your family.

RobbG

You completely missed the point, wake up and pay attention!

Chas

If you like to burn up or don’t have to do much driving on the job….or paid for your time to sit at a charging station, then maybe it would be a good thing. I’ll pass. I have real work to do that requires driving and no time to waste.

mazzuchelli

I’d love to have a Volt. The last company vehicle foisted on me was a diesel VW pick up, probably the worst automobile with which I’ve ever had contact. The Volt by comparison is attractive visually and slick from an engineering perspective.

Troy

I drive a GE company car. Right now, it is a Chevy Impala. Employees are required to pay a weekly amount for our commuting expenses. We are required to report our mileage monthly, and are taxed for all non-business use of the car.
It is not free.
As a field employee, I may not have to turn in my Impala for a Volt, because the majority of the time, I use it at locations other than my home – so it won’t be getting charged very often and would have to run on premium gas. So, they will likely not require me to drive a Volt because the energy savings won’t be there in my case.
Driving a company car for company business is at the company’s option. So, I’ll drive whatever car they give me keys for.

citizenofur

Company car is the company car. They did the math and realized it’s a lower cost to operate than their prior choice of models and so they made their call. Coddling employees has nothing to do with it and it never has. Look back at some of their prior choices on company cars. This is actually a lot better than some of them. And the thought that politics has something to do with it is pretty laughable.

Khadgars

Some clarification on the article, GM is still planning on producing 60,000 Volts, but that is worldwide, 45,000 Volts for the US and the rest for Europe and China. That’s been the plan for a while now, the only difference is that GM said it would reduce production if it needed too.

In any case, we also need to mention that the Volt is not the only Electric vehicle GE will be purchasing, it’s just the first. I believe GE is planning on purchasing something like 25,000 electric vehicles, in which 12,000 will be Volts and the rest will probably Leafs, Ford Focus Electric and some other ones.

Unibrowser

If there was a REAL market for these things, then it would happen without the government pushing it.
I did a test drive with one of these beast and to say it was disappointing is and understatement.
Overall, a small gas-powered vehicle is a better choice, goes farther and is a hell of a lot safer.

John

No this is not the first EV. They had many EVs before Ford’s Model-T and during the 60s and 70s there were a few that came into production as well. EV technology is not new at all they are just reinventing the wheel.

John West

That would be reinventing failure and stupidity not to mention crony capitalism. Obama might as well bought them himself and handed them out in the ghetto. After all it’s a car not even a Negro yoot would steal.

CJ

The problem is the Volt is not an electric vehicle, it’s a plug-in hybrid. Worker choosing the Ford or Nissan will be penalized with limited range. Why not offer plug-in options from Ford or Toyota?

Redneck Geek

Wouldn’t a bunch of the Nissans be ‘Leaves?’

Jon

I think technically because its the proper name of the car it would be leafs. However, I think that if you buy a bunch of leafs from Nissan you’ve bought a “tree”.

John

hahah awesome, Jan 🙂

John West

Same question cam up about the Toronto Maple Leafs …… go figure.

flyfish

It’s a good policy for GM and GE and of course the tax payers who have subsidized GM. At this point the Volt is still too expensive, even with the $7500 credit. Every company car that GE or GM provides should be a Volt. Period, no exceptions.

GM, please put this powertrain into as many vehicles as you can quickly. I’m looking for a small (selectable) awd crossover. Might want to make it attractive and entice an entirely new buying demographic .

And just for the record, there isn’t a company in the US that pay taxes. All taxes are passed on to the consumer in the cost of goods or services.

Gf

GE does not pay ANY income taxes it also received billions in TAX PAYERS subsidies. That is call third world type corruption. Well, we have a third world POS in the WH….

Tony

Electric Technology is good for now one. Consider the “carbon footprint” to manufacture a single electric is higher then that of a Humvee. Consider the extensive use of exotic metals and rare earths required in both the battery and power plant construction. Consider the cost of each charging station. Consider the lack of a power grid even remotely capable of charging anywhere near the number of electric autos to make even a small dent in oil usage. The US is playing games while our power infrastructure collapses. Soon enough we’ll have rolling blackouts on the east coast. Our electrical grid is completely inadequate for even its present usage rates, let alone the additional strain of electric cars. If we are to move away from hydrocarbons as fuel, we need a revolutionary change not half baked ideas from “greenies” . It would indeed be wise for the US to drill drill drill until we come up with a clean viable alternative to oil. We need a “Mr Fusion” type of technical level solution, not an 80 mile range, 2x $$ then existing technology pseudo replacement.

BOB

Yup the rare earths for the motors (like neodymimum) are mined in china, google “china hush pollution” (china hush is the website). The pollution in that country to satisfy the “greenies” in the west is beyond belief.

Killshot

The amortized cost of a Volt to the taxpayer factoring in true costs of production, bailouts, etc, is ~ $250k per car. Plus it is an engineering nightmare. Plus, even if you DO buy the anthropogenic GW bs, puts a boatload of hazardous battery materials into the environment. Nicely done.

John West

But don’t forget the credo of the left … “it’s the good intentions that matter.”

Michael

Also, who do you think pays the rebate that has been moved up to $10.000 to get rid of the things that are a total failure.

Flayer

I call it the Chevy Volga. (Some of you readers might be old enough or lucky enough to have avoided public school to know what I mean.)

Dave

I’ve often thought the Volt is our equivalent of the Trabant (another shitty “people’s car” from the former East Germany), but I like your wordplay better. Good one!

“All taxes are passed on to the consumer in the cost of goods or services” ? Only a socialist would claim such a thing and subsidizing GM and GE is good business? REALLY? $5 Trillion in debt and gas up 83% since the Obungler Marxist Narcissist took office. I guess to you, that’s also being passed onto the consumer.

John West

EVERYTHING gets passed on to the consumer/tax-payer. You need to learn how to connect the dots to the very end.

Len

John West is correct.
No Company has any way to pay taxes except with money its customers give it, the consumer.
No Government employee pays taxes, how can they, they are payed in tax money!
I know it is hard to think. . .

dilligong

So what you’re saying is Obama’s class warfare plan to tax the rich is really just a plan to tax everyone else except the rich…right

jekyllisland

SO being forced as an employee to do something is a good thing?

Jon

I don’t think its a bad thing for a company to say that they are reimbursing you for a product that your company invests into. They are not really forcing their employees to buy Volts they are just saying that they will reimburse you if buy the volt that they have already invested in. So why would that company want to spend any money on anything else.

Troy

I am not being “forced” into anything. They are not requiring me to buy or own the car. They are providing me a car to use for company business, which I may use for personal business if I pay for the fuel and pay income tax on the value of the personal use. I am not required to use the car for personal use – that is my choice. I could use one of the other cars that I already own for that.
The company is providing me a company car to use on company business. They have the right to choose what car that will be since they are the ones paying for it.

Frank St. Clair

True about the taxes BUT-companies like GE and GM who actually pay no taxes compete against corporations who must charge their customers for the taxes they are charged. So, the favored companies have a serious competitive advantage. Have fun with your electric cars. I hope they are ready for prime time when you get them. At this point they are clearly not. BTW, doesn’t electricity require the burning of coal in this country? I guess coal is much “cleaner” than gasoline, huh?

John West

You have it right … the left in incapable of thinking through these sorts of problems. That is why the USA and Europe is in fast decline. … too much liberalism for too long.

sumunownguy

So, using your logic, or lack thereof, you don’t pay taxes either. You pass them on to your employer as part of your wage and benefit package. You saying that this is a good deal for the consumer proves the point that you are intellectually challenged. The median income for a Volt buyer is around 150K a year, not hardly an income level that US taxpayer should be sudsidizing.

Len

You have the direction wrong. Your employer pays your wages out of the value you added to the product.
in other words you were paid part of that value, The money, of course, did com from the consumer who also paid taxes on. it
you then pay more taxes on it ..

BamaJDK

Your arguement that no corporation pays taxes… Well, two comments:

1. Some companies actually don’t pay anything, like GE and GM. Yet, they are still charging consumers.

2. If consumers effectively pay the corporate taxes (and I agree that they do), then you should also agree that there should be no corporate taxes. Instead of 35%, it should be at or near zero.

Wow, a Liberal making the argument for no taxes w/out him even realizing it.

EdC

If business taxes were fair they would be based on sales receipts not on profit calculated using convoluted definitions of deductible expenses and socially engineered credits. Business would save more than the taxes if they simply paid 1% of their gross. All businesses would pay; none would pay nothing.

domenick negri

I have a friend in Northern Michigan he just bought his third Toyota Hybrid, first a Prius, second a Hybrid Camry, third a Prius. A friend in Arizona just purchased his second Prius. What does that tell you about the value of Toyota’s Hybrids?

Porkbevr

It tells me your friend is a knothead.

Bvikay

Oh yeah!! Smart people. Sell the dumb things before you have to replace the $5K batteries (and OBTW dispose of the hazardous materials). Pure stupidity.

Bvikay

The Volt reminds me of the “wonder car” of Communist East Germany, the Trabant. How did that work out? I think they lasted only 40 miles before the wheels fell off.

Eyes wide open

Is crony capitalism really good policy? And should it be praised by the tax payers?

Leland

“And just for the record, there isn’t a company in the US that pay taxes. All taxes are passed on to the consumer in the cost of goods or services.”

Then, GM kept the money they charged customers, instead of paying the taxes. Nice attempt at spinning it but, regardless of where they got the money, they have to pay their taxes.

FrankD

In a sane world I would agree with you. But our Bumbler-In-Chief has exempted GM from paying any federal taxes until he says otherwise. So at least for the time being GM pays no federal taxes.

Tim

You are right about companies (businesses) not paying taxes but rather their customers actually pay the taxes through the companies when they patronize them. But, for the record, did GE reduce prices to reflect the fact they didn’t pay any of their customers’ money to the government in the form of corporate or any other tax?
I am not sure if you are trying to defend GE and/or GM but let’s not forget GE just sent its medical devices manufacturing division to CHINA to keep from paying the new taxes implemented under the Democrats’ health care plan; 0bamacare.

Fort Worth Yankee

The Chevy Volt is still about two generations away from being a reliable family car. Each Volt produced is heaverily subsidised by the government (that means tax payer and borrowed money from China). To fully cahrge a Chevy Volt costs about $30 in electricity (at a $0.10 per kwh) and then can ony go about 40 miles on electricity. That works out to be $0.75 per mile. Compare that to a car that holds 12 gallon of gasoline and gets 40 MPG, like the Ford Fiesta. At $3.50 per gallon it costs $42 to fill the tank. You now can drive it about 480 miles at a cost of $0.09 per mile.
Now when the Volt runs out of its charged battery, it begins running on its gasoline engine, which gets about 33 MPG. The Volt holds 15 gallons, so that same $3.50 per gallon costs about $52.50. Running on the gas engine alone the Volt can go some 495 miles, slightly more than the Ford goes. It also costs slightly more than the Ford to drive one mile, $0.11 per mile.
The Volt cost more than $45,000, not including options, to buy. You do get a one time $7,500 tax credit for buying it, so that brings the price down to $37,500 (if you can afford to wait up to a year to get your tax credit). The Fiesta costs about $15,000, not including options. You do not get a tax credit for buying a Ford. Then again the government does not own Ford Motor Co., they declined a bailout. Even fully loaded the Fiesta comes out to about $18,000, which is less than half the costs of the Volt.

BOB

Nice synopsis..

diana kunselman

This is why the country is in the shape it is in. We are subsidizing this @ 10,000.00 a peice. This is a ponzi scheme to make it look like there is a demand for these Dolts, you fool. There is no demand, if a car is being forced on anyone. Obviously you do not really keep up with thr “real world”, or you have so much money it does not matter. The income fore people puchasing thr Dolt is 170,000.00 a year, AND WE ARE SUSIDIZING THEM? The ignorance is apalling.

BadPenny

I’m waiting for the day the GE/M volt catches on fire and the employee sues the bejesus out of GE and GM for forcing them to drive a ticking bomb!

SerfCityHereWeCome

Really flyfish? No companies pay any taxes? Sounds like ExxonMobil has the mother of all lawsuits on their hands against their idiot accountants who have so foolishly given hundreds of billions of their dollars away to the goobermint these past few years.

Those rise too, but not as much and the electricity cost is far less. Gasoline powered vehicle advancements have not amounted to the pace of EV advancements recently. EVs are getting lighter and much more efficient, and far lighter prototypes are to be produced soon. You also have the power to solar power an EV. Electricity prices are going to be low for a very long time. There are other sources of electricity that are cheap too, which don’t get more expensive and are gradually taking over, such as wind (9.7 cents/kWh).

Good point, though. Everything should be taken into consideration, including what I said above. 🙂

T Adkins

Gas prices have been going up faster than electrical prices, even now with oil demand being lower than the supply the price should have come down some but is being kept at an artificial level of pricing, and the price of oil is expected to go up.

Rick H.

What are electricity prices going to do when the EPA starts closing down coal plants?

idiots

John Howard

Yes, but now that Obama is starting to regulate coal fired electric plants out of existence and in those areas people are bracing for 30% increases (at least) in the cost of electricity.

gary

Gas prices are rising because Obama is forcing them up as he said he would do in order to make the “green” nonsense competitive.

BadPenny

When oil prices go up, so do electric prices…..dummy. How do you think coal is mined and gets to the power plants? Electric trucks?

Mrenergyczarisafool

Your post might be the most ridiculous I’ve seen. Good business sense? You must be with Obummer’s Truth Team, eh?

44guyton

It makes excellent business sense if you want to keep the hand that feeds you (Obama hand) happy.

william

Obama drove up oil / gas prices to make Green seem affordable.
False gas and oil shortages are a game to make money on green.

Hedge

The Volt is a coal powered car, costing twice the price of a typical company fleet vehicle, and it gets the equivalent of 22 mpg of gas…..really sound business sense. This is a political decision to pay back the Obama administration for looking the other way regarding GE’s taxes….plain and simple.

JunkFixer

Energy prices are rising across the board so the Volt doesn’t really make much sense. Efficiency is what is needed, and that’s not the Volt either. To get the kind of efficiency we need, vehicle curb weight will need to be in the sub 1500 lb range. That isn’t going to happen in the Nanny States of America any time soon.

Wizard

And, where do you think electricity comes from? !!
Check out the power density of other energy sources, compared to “batteries”. 😉 Good Luck.

NYGUY

..and how about the fact that the “green” cars are actually more harmful to the environment in the long run. In manufacturing, producing, and managing the waste….

Unibrowser

There is NO Business sense to the Volt! NO ONE with a lick of sense can show a business model where this is economical.

ly

Unless the republicans get elected, then the gas prices will come back down.

Richard

We should Drill for our own oil … That makes sense. Going to Electric cars is not the answer. Your playing into the Governments hand with that thinking .. Wake up!!

bobby

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. That koolaid must be tatsy.

Sb

You can only drive 40 miles on the coal powered thing before you have to switch to gas……….sucker….

Leland

Win, win, win!
Wth all these electric cars on the market, our coal-fired power company will have to increase production. These environmentally sound vehicles will be a boon to the fossil fuel industry.

Jon

Actually it is a dumb idea. On a charge the volt gets anywhere from 30+ miles down to about 15. If charging from your house without a charging station an 8 hr charge is equivalent to one gallon of gas or less at a cost of $1.45 per full charge. My car gets 42+ mpg in combined driving and up to 48mpg on highway. It saves no energy comparatively since my car does better that the Volt with or without the gas assist. In addition the extra energy required to make both negates any savings through the entire life of the car. Since energy cannot normally be created nor destroyed it requires the same amount of energy to drive the vehicle. Also electricity on average looses about 1/3 its energy efficiency through the delivery system hence without new nuclear energy plants the only consistent form of energy is from fossil fuels. In short GE should get out of politics.

That guy

Um so you think that there is no oil products used to produce electricity?

Jason

The price of gas would have go up to over $7 to get the payback even close to the outside life of a car. Realistically it would have to be closer to $9. GE is doing nothing but trying to sell their electrical grid products. If they keep the product alive, they sell chargers to the suckers that are bad at math.

diana kunselman

Where do you think electricity comes from? Dolts drive Volts…NOT A CLUE.

RichW

Like other hybrids, the Volt has two engines, one gas and the other elecdtric. The carbon footprint from manufacturing both of them and the battery plus the loss in power from the coal plant through the grid, the charger, the transmission, to the motor, makes the carbon footprint greater than that of common non-hybrid high-MPG cars over the life-time of the vehicle. And the other cars don’t explode in your garage or cost the taxpayers thousands in subsidies!

SerfCityHereWeCome

Yep, gotta get those Volts belching some more of that coal into the air and burning down garages to help save on the demolition costs associated with home remodeling, lol. Just think how much more pollution will be caused by all of those new Teslas and other electrocrap “bricking” in the streets. When an electric car “bricks”, you not only can’t run it, you can’t roll it, drag it or even MOVE it. A nice $40K repair that ISN’T covered by warranty OR insurance. Enjoy.

The Electric Company

In the summertime under high electrical consumption we have brown outs and blackouts. The Obama admin doesn’t want any more electrical stations so how are we to charge the cars, light and cool our homes? That’s a really smart move…people with no brains. When we run short of electrical power prices will go up.

Tinapoli

Gosh, company workers who are eligible for a free car as part of their compensation now must suffer heated leather seats, Bose sound system, push you back in your seat acceleration, great cornering, and a library quiet ride? Horrors! And the car gets 120 MPG (at least mine does). Apparently this is a bad thing? Ya, sure. I’ll take a free company car any day.

Mikey

And hope it just doesn’t catch on fire in the garage.

Dwight E. Howell

Yep and if everybody buys one we will need an electricity tax to pay for the roads to make up for what is lost on the gas tax plus vastly more electricity generation and if you think wind/solar farms are going to work here ask the Scottish and Germans governments how well they work.

Flayer

Don’t forget the extra towing insurance and per diem so that when your “Volga” runs out of juice and you cause traffic nightmares for all of us in gasoline powered cars who supposedly hate the environment, a tow-truck can get to you where you can be towed to the nearest (?) charging station and sit for, what, 6 hours?

Sosumi

Or ask those in Denmark who have had reliable wind farms since the 1970’s with proof that they CAN be effective and economical.

Scotland and Germany don’t have near the space we have to make them work. I don’t think that’s a valid comparison. However, I could be wrong. If you think so, please forgive my impertinance.
I do see that windfarms here in the US are not doing as well as we expected or hoped they would. I read a story about one in California that was neglected, not kept up properly, also some places are not ordering more as they had planned.
Have a good day!

BOB

Currently in the United states right now we have over 17,000 dormant windmills because of the extremely high maintenance cost. it’s a giant panacea for a nonexistent problem.

T Adkins

they will most likely tax you when you register your car or we will move to a per mile charge. Washington state is working on a $100 annual EV car fee, to make up for loss of revenue from gas taxes to maintain roads.

There are claims that the current grid would be fine even if 20-25% of car in the US went electric, many home owners with EVs also make the move to have solar installed in their homes, which ends up fueling the car at no extra cost saving them money and even adding more value to their homes.

If somehow grid price became unbearable for a Volt owner they would still do better than many cars just running on gas.

edscholz

what are you smoking? and what happens when you have to replace the batteries. Both disposal and replacement costs are staggering. By the time you paid for the solar panels there are NO savings left to apply to the car. You better live in a place that has plenty of sun and pretty big panel in stallation to give you reliable electric output.

JIm

Care to source any of that? I thought not. The grid collapses in california on a hot day when the ac turns on try finding a source for information that is not based on wish think. Solar charging? so apparently mr homeowner leaves his car home all day to charge and only drives it at night hope the battery drain from the headlights is taken into account in your range assumptions. the unsubsidized cost of a solar kilowatt by the way is @30 cents per kilowatt.

Rick

Please explain how how spending tens of thousands of dollars saves money? You pay more for the car, you pay for the solar, you have to replace the batteries every five to seven years. So you spend $30,000 or more to save $1,000. Do you work in Washington?

JIm

Add spain to that list as well

Stephen4Liberty

I worked for GE Healthcare, the car is not free. In fact GE tells the IRS that you get the car for personal use and IRS taxes your hide. To the the tune of $1,100 back in 2001-2004. I had other company cars but only GE reported to the IRS.

Flayer

You’re welcome.

Signed,

American Taxpayer

EllisWyatt

Yeah, sounds great as long as it doesn’t explode.

JIm

So as long as my taxs psy for your heated butt its all good? So does the Volt also run on food stamps? or will we have to cut that program to shell out the 9 BILLION dollars worth of welfare checks to GE to buy this dinosaur technology. (electric battery cars have been around since 1892 http://blog.juicedhybrid.com/2009/06/10/inventor-of-first-electric-car/ By the way heated seats are cold comfort if you live somwhere north of the sunbelt your hands will freeze to the steering wheel. of course that may be the plan no exit for Volt crash victums just stay frozen to the wheel until they burn.

Dan

So FORCING people to use a car that takes hours to charge just to drive ~80 miles is irresponsible. Will GE subsidize the new absences from each employee who didn’t remember to charge their car and have to sit and wait two hours while recharging? And the lack of safety these “cars” provide is laughable. Ask yourself why the media underreports that…Getting hit in a Volt, SmartCar, etc. is like getting hit in a glorified go-cart.

Your argument is the same as saying the Waste Management “forces” their employees to drive garbage trucks. These are company-provided cars to be used for company business. If they are used for personal driving, that is at the employees’ option, and we have to pay income tax on the personal use. Nobody is “forcing” us to do anything. The company is providing us cars for use on company business. It is their decision as to what equipment they will buy for their employees to use. Since the Volt has a gasoline engine, a car that hasn’t been charged will still run, but like any other equipment, the employee is expected to keep it in working order (at the company’s expense).

Patrick

I was a GE Healthcare employee for 13 yrs. The company vehicle they provide is not free. $110.00 a month was deducted from my paycheck for the privilege of using their vehicle. It is a benefit to be sure, but the IRS sees it as income.

T_

Tinapoli is so right. And all of that “suffering” only to save GM money from the gas bills??? Of course. If the company cars of GE are big ones with a very poor MPG, this will save much money and fast.

FreedomLibertyandFaith

Suffering???? That’s not the point. Employees are being told what to buy – sort of like Obamacare – sort of like Communism.

Will

The Volt sales are struggling. The general public will buy things they like. Look at the Ipad

Regardless, This is a good shot in the arm for GM Why not sell a car that is 3 times the price of a Cruze to a company that didnt have to pay taxes last year. It just adds income to another company(GM) that had record profits but also doesnt have to pay corporate taxes because of the losses accumulated in bankruptcy

Sounds like payback or the American way

george

No, not “playback the American way”, playback the DIMOCRAT way.

T Adkins

GE will will also save money on fuel and they will most likely be able to write off their new EV fleet on their taxes and still be able to enjoy that $7500 tax credit per car. That and writing off the chargers and their installation.

sheckyvegas

It’s the old adage – Grab them by the balls and their hearts will follow.

joseph kacirek

As a shareholder in GE I am outraged with Imult’s latest stupidity. Company profits being wasted on failure. Oh I how yearn for the wisdom and financial expertise of Jack Welsch, that was the real GE, not this idiot!

BOB

Welch was as bad as Immelt. Welch is the one that started the outsourcing and H1B nonsense. he was satan to work for.

GM sells the Volt for $47,500, the taxpayer underwrites $7,000 of the price, plus a significant portion of the charging stations. Bottom line, the taxpayers will be subsidizing the ‘bold decision’ to the tune of around $1 million, which is about, Uhm, $1 million more than GE paid in 2010.

Also, let’s not forget the large number of already built, yet unsold, Volts across America (around 5,000 last I saw), and that last year GM managed to sell around 8,000 of these cars.

The body style of the Chevy Volt won’t suit all users, some folks need larger cars for various reasons, but to win a PR coup GM is buying 12,000 $47,500 cars for $40,000 when a $25,000 Chevy Cruz would SAVE the company AND the US taxpayers MILLIONS.

jayvee

Every time I hear about these coal-powered cars, I just laugh. There’s a sucker born every minute.

Truth is that the Volt runs off of government kool-aid and the only flavor is lemon. Paid for by taxpayers that have to drive ten year old cars and live in the real world.

Hooligan

Is this the new cfl version of the automobile?

Davan

First of all, maybe I missed it in the article, but as *I* read it, the Volt itself isn’t reimbursed, just the operating costs. The article is SO poorly written that it is difficult to be sure. But if just the costs are reimbursed, all those moaning about how these employees should shut up about their free car need to reconsider what they say.

Which leads me into point two, which is the grammatical errors. I mean honestly. Did you not re-read what you wrote?

“Only field engineers are excepted from having to drive a company Volt.”

I presume that the field engineers are EXEMPTED.

“GM had hopped to sell as many as 60,000 Volts in 2012”

Hopped? Like a bunny rabbit?

Really. You do a disservice to journalism, English, and education in general.

Troy

The volt doesn’t need to be reimbursed because the company buys it, pays for it, owns it, insures it, maintains it, and fuels it. All I have to do is drive the thing when on company business. For personal use, I have my own car. If I want to drive the company car for personal business, I have that option (I have to pay income tax on the personal use, and there is a weekly assessment for commuting use) but am not required to use this car for anything other than company business. It is the company’s car. It isn’t my car, it isn’t free for me to use for commuting or personal business, and it isn’t my choice what equipment my company buys for me to use.

RB

hopped?

truspeek

Unplug GE and bolt the volt! Neither company is good for the United States.

Are they still going to get the $7500.00 tax rebate from the taxpayer. If they do that is not bad having the taxpayer pay for a private company to drive around in cars nobody wants

Hard2Rock

Does anyone know how much it will cost to replace the battery pack in the Chevy volt? . I wonder if the cost of a new battery pack will offset the savings from reduced gas consumption.

Art Reynolds

GE has morphed from the once mighty respectable company it once was into a “tool” for the Commie-democrats.

A government subsidized democrat political donation funnel of taxpayer money.

Ken Roberts

GM and GE is a crime looking for someplace to happen . they reneged on the contract with retirees and raped the stock holders and should not be allowed to do business here in the USA. The electric cars will only raise every ones energy bill, there is no such thing as free it cost more to charge the cars then meets the eye. They will pollute more through proxie as it will take more coal to charge them .

John Morrison

Funny how no one has thought to mention the $120 million dollar taxpayer subsidy ($10,000 per car) GE, the company that pays no taxes will receive for thre Volt purchase. Money that will have to be borrowed and be added to the national debt of course. But, who’s counting? Sounds kind of reVOLTing to me.

mike w

I work for one of Immelt ‘s competitors. GE is known to be the last company anyone wants to work for. Their products are shoddy, and the personal that service them are treated wretchedly by GE. There is a reason that GE’s stock prices are off 60% from their peak and their immediate competitors are not. GE is known for great marketing and lousy engineering.

Bill

Immelt must like the taste of shoe polish, the way he licks Obama’s boots.

Kurt

Obama, CEO of Government Motors, will soon mandate that all Americans buy a Volt because it will be for our own good.

amanda

Is anyone else aware of the fact that ge will be eligible for The government subsidy on every volt it buys?

Keep the electric cars numbers up by forcing your employees to drive them AND get a kick hack from the government you paid nothing too in the first place?

Stunning really.

K

To be clear GE employees drive the company cars for company business. Along with that $ comes OUT of their paychecks to cover the cost of the vehicle (it’s like the car note that is never paid off ) GE will be going to employees houses and installing charging stations ….no idea if the employee must pay for the installation, but they will be “reimbursed” for additional wattage on their electrical bills. A typical field employee drives 20k to 30k per year to attend to customer needs. The cars are usually turned over after 100k+ miles. Today, gas is 3.59/gal in my area. It may be a wise decision for the company and the environment to have the fleet be hybrid.

In my city, my electricity rate depends on how many kilowatt hours used. The rate is based on a rate of 1 person. The more I use, the higher rate I pay. I have five in my home and to charge a Volt puts my rate at a ridiculous rate. I can add a solar panel to offset the power, but it costs around $10,000. It also coast around $10,000 to add another 100amp circuit for a faster Volt charging unit plus the cost of GE’s charger.
Gasoline is the cheapest form of power for automobiles, any other form of power is less efficient and cost more. Drill baby Drill, until our engineers discover a new power source. Buy a cheat Chevy Cruze or if you want a reliable car, buy a Toyota Yaris.

Chris

Fascism: The only way the garbage green technology can survive.

theoracle

This would be hilarious if not so sad. The car ought to be renamed “The Obama”. A government subsidized vehicle made by a government subsidized auto manufacturer being “bought” by a government favored and tax-subsidized company whose Chairman (Immelt) was appointed by Obama as Head of his White House Economic Advisory Panel and Jobs Czar. Did I mention GE also has received billions for……wait for it…….Federal Energy-Related Subsidies which increased under Obama…a whopping 108%. Think Solyndra..etc. All of this charade falls at the feet of you and me and our wages that we earn and that Obama….wants to take more from you in higher taxes.

picomanning

Absolutely pathetic. There is no mention of how many hybrid Fords are being purchased.
Does anyone know?

Jtl

The Volt is the biggest POS. FU GE

Curly

GE will be rewarded handsomely for buying Government Motors vehicles. Not only does GE pay no taxes, now they will likely GE getting free money from the federal Government for obeying DC edicts. Hail King Obama!!

Curly

Rising electrical prices?!?!? Stop asking questions and going not details. All that matters is that the plan sounds good and that the intellectuals in DC have deemed it so. DC will reorganize society into a utopian dream. Just not yours.

barack crack

Can you say, if you scratch mine I’ll scrach yours. One of Obama bff’s going down.

Gimme a break, the stupid car goes 35 miles on a charge. It has a 16 kw-hr battery and a gallon of gas has 36 kw-hr or 2.25 times the energy storage. It is slightly cheaper to use gas and you get 10 times the distance overall due to storage capacity. Add in the cost of batteries and such it is a pure joke. This Obama bs and nothing more so grow up and accept reality. The volt is a joke. Energy production is easy, storage is not. What is oil? Energy stored, no? Batteries are merely storage and energy density is not on par, especially when you consider the cost to manufacture. There is a reason for the tax credit. It is because it is a piece of junk and nobody wants it….

Steve Gibson

GE’s immelt needs a slap and an antitrust suit filed against him.
Chevy Volt? A car for idiots! Obama? Indict impeach, imprison and repeat often for the rest of this corrupt anti American thugogracy. The only profitable part of the American Automotive industry is the same part (SUV’s and Trucks) that our treasonous divider in chief has been trying to crush. Hey dem’s, you like how after Obama killed American Oil exploration and drilling in the Gulf? And how he killed Keystone Pipeline? And now how he’s playing pansy to the ayatollas and mullahs in Iran while they threaten to close the Straits of Hormuz and push oil up over $100 a barrel???
Obama…Worst President Ever! So how you like dem apples, boy?!?!

Kaitara

If you don’t pay it at the pump, you will pay it at the plug.

I work for GE

Please let me clarify a few things since I am an employee of GE in a field sales role. First of all a company car is not a luxury, as an employee you are expected to put between 3 and 4 thousand miles a month on it. That’s a lot of windshield time. Second it’s not free, we pay a monthly expense plus a mileage charge for personal use.

The biggest problem w/ GE forcing us into these cars is our territories are huge. I personally cover northern California, Washington State, Oregon, and Idaho. The volt goes like 20 miles on the charge and the gas tank is only 9 gallons. It’s just not a practical alternative to the Chevy Impala we normally receive. Oh and no trunk space.

And finally – I hear the Volt has a habit of burning down owners homes!!!

Sincerely,

Probably going to have to look for work after posting….

SerfCityHereWeCome

You sound like someone who can definitely do better than working for that fascist company. I hope thousands of your fellow coworkers also quit in disgust and hopefully show Immelt that this idiocy has a price.

Is that the GE Healthcare of Americas that just moved its HQ to China? I was watching TV the other day and GE is still adverstising the HQ as if it was here in America. Immelt is a LOSER!

George

lay down with dog, you get fleas. enjoy your volts you GE dooshbags.

~ Daniel Love

I’m not a believer in MAN MADE global warming but I am a believer in NOT EMPOWERING COUNTRIES WHO WANT TO KILL US BY BUYING THIER OIL. Sorry, even if we made our own oil exclusively, our enemies in the middle east still are empowered by other countries when they buy oil. I’m for alternative fuels because oil empowers our enemies. And GO GM. I’d love to buy a volt. They are a fun drive.

Jon

“I’m for alternative fuels because oil empowers our enemies. And GO GM. I’d love to buy a volt. They are a fun drive. “

They may be fun to drive but so are hundreds of other cars. If you want one fine that is the idea, buy it but I don’t want to pay 7500 for you to buy it on my dime not to mention the other government subsidies to GM. Also the car saves not a lick on energy. By the way we have plenty of oil to drive down the influence of OPEC nations.

Electric cars have been around since the 1800’s. They are just to impractical. Only a 100 mile range that’s effected by the weather. Batteries that catch fire if damaged. The worst thing is that most of the electric cars look like crap. I will never buy one until the range of a fully charged vehicle is 300 or 400 miles in any weather and they can seat 7 passengers and tow at least 15,000 pound loads such as a boat, horse trailer, or camper. I don’t think that will happen in my lifetime.

Am I missing something? There is no “forcing” going on here, besides the so-called author sharing HIS view without doing his DD on company supplied vehicles.
1- A company wants to cut expenses, 2- That same company probably got a deal on said cars, 3- The employees DON’T have to take the FREE COMPANY PAID car. Not every company gives you the option of what vehicle you drive… you get “this car” or no car.
Ohhhh Mr. Author guy… Google FORCES their hybrid driving employees to park in the better spots while everyone else gets to choose. Write about that.

no slappz

When there’s a battery for an electric car that can hold as much energy as a tank of gas and can be recharged in less than 10 minutes, consumers will begin buying those cars. Till then, the only drivers will be those people forced by their employers to drive them. But the pressure will surely disappear as soon as Obama’s out of office.

Me

who wants to drive that garbage? is that the car that catches on fire? what a joke. NO THANK YOU. Are we turning into Japan where the corporations are giving employees cars, homes, etc? I prefer to OWN my stuff and pay for it myself which is why I’m a proud business owner and not a welfare recipient. Not saying that employees are welfare recipients, but ones who beg for cars are.

Georgine

LOL they can’t even give them away they stink on ice!

William

Crony Capitalism Phase II. The taxpayers and pre-bankruptcy GM shareholders are the losers in all of this. Obama’s minons have got it all sketched out — it’s a line up of one scratching the other’s back in a big government-insider circle jerk. If the technology was ready for prime time, and more importantly affordable, the Volts would be selling without imposed mandates for their use. Govenment manipulation and bedfellows at their finest.

hihoze

Government Motors and Mussolini Motors working with Government Electric to produce kickbacks and junk to benefit the Politburo’s friends and donors to the Marxist Dictator they put in the White House. It only gets worse from here America. We are a house hopelessly divided. Democratic Socialist Workers Party vs everyone else. This is what the decent into tyranny looks like.

Bound4er

Your 5 sentences sum things up very nicely. Depressing thinking about what has become of America and scary to think of what lies ahead.

Occupy a Job

Lost a lot of money on GM shares too. The union can keep their cars. Maybe their kids can eat them.

I’ll still wait until one comes out I can get 250 miles out of before charging. If one ever makes it to market it still won’t be a GM. Ford, foreign, and Republican will always be first choices. I don’t abide thieves.

First we get crony capitalism with the government sponsored subsidies as incentives to buy these undesirable Volts,
now we have crony consumerism with Immelt buying enough cars to reach the projected 10,000 Volt sales as was
promised by Obama. This is like your dad buying all the remaining Kool-Aid that you couldn’t sell at your driveway
Kool-Aid stand when you were a kid. This wasn’t a legitimate sale, it was the GE Obama Jobs Czar making the feckless Obama promise come true. Liberals have made a professional career out of subsidizing abject failure.
Government is coercion and force. Anyone who doesn’t know this, isn’t paying close enough attention. Wake up!

Diogenes

A guy at Fox News recently tested the Volt for a week.

“… Bolling reports that the car consistently ran out of charge between 20-24 miles of electric use — and this after two nights of charging the car for over 12 hours. He also reports it ran out of juice in the Lincoln Tunnel. Fortunately, the car has a gas engine that will kick in when needed, so he was not stranded. …”

Wouldn’t drive one of the d*(& Volts if it was given to me.! The Gov’t (especially this Marxist Adminstration) all the time now just wants to tell every American what to buy, what to use, what not to do, what not to eat, what to eat, not to smoke, etc., etc., etc,. etc…………………….When is the majority of Americans going to finally have enough of this centralized gov’t stuff and start walking the streets. If people like myself is the majority,,,,,,,,then we need to start parading and standing up. We allow the environmental whackos to stop anything constructive in this country and many other minor fringe groups who do not represent any of the majority of this country at all. It is time to stand up….not tomorrow,,,,but today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hiheels

Under my plan, energy costs would necessarily sky rocket.
Electric power from burning coal or wind killing birds that eat bugs and vermin.
Coal sold to china to be re-purchased because we closed the coal mine or nuclear power.
Where does the electricity come from ? Those batteries burn up and will cause huge litigation.
oh boy how exciting to read the disaster novel of our country authored by progressives

Sagesteve

Go ahead, buy a Volt…V ery O ld L atent T echnology

Osamas Pajamas

Right. Is this si the failed OhBummer Volt we’re talking about here — the brainchild of the Child Dictator?

Osamas Pajamas

Pls delete this version.

Idiotmitten

12000 Volts at $7,500 tax credit is $90,000,000.

Tom

Nice gesture Immelt, but as long as you are at GE, I will not purchase anything your company makes and until the day come GM pays back every red cent it borrowed from the tax payer, I will never consider buying a GM automobile or truck. Crony capitalism at its finest.

Osamas Pajamas

Right. Is this the failed OhBummer Volt we’re talking about here — the brainchild of the Child Dictator?

I think it’s great… GE DOES stand for General ELECTRIC… right? They should get behind electric cars, boats, trains, trucks, airplanes, can openers, knives, golf clubs… whatever… it is in their best interest.

For me on the other hand, I will stick with a gasoline powered car. In ten or twenty years when battery technology is greatly improved and they work out all the bugs in the electrics, I might consider one. Right now I find the current crop to be unattractive, lacking range, underpowered, have poor handling and WAY over priced (even with the $7500 from Obama) they also face an expensive battery replacement at some point and are not simple to work on if you take it to the local garage. I like to buy nice cars and keep them a long time, electrics don’t fit that bill.

Megan

I remember when GW Bush was president, liberals were continually bellyaching that Bush was “going to take away all our freedoms,” (this was in regard to the Patriot Act.) Under Bush, I never saw anyone forced to do anything. Just laws to help find terrorists. Under Obama…I see act after act in the name of “green energy” and his health plans that are more like “big brother” than anything I’ve ever seen. It is sickening. And it makes me angry that Bush took so much crap from everyone, when he never forced anyone into anything. But liberals… I guess they feel they can tell people to do whatever they want in the name of the religion of “green.”

The Prius has been out since 1997 and now most other manufacturers have a hybrid, and GE didn’t feel the need to “offer” them on their employees. It’s only when GE, Government motors, and Obama colluded that GE is “asked” to prop up the Volt at a huge cost. It’s not they are offering the Volt, it’s that they are only offering the Volt, irrespective of the needs of the employee, or the right to compete by the other manufacturers. And won’t save money, because the employees won’t plug them in and the employees use them for long distance travel – they aren’t given a car just to commute.

trader

say bye to my ge stocks

Constitutional American

Oh, I’ll bet GE also received the $10,000 of our tax money that is being given as an incentive to purchase the piece of C R A P car called the Volt! Immelt is like the disgusting stuff found on the bottom of shoes. He’ll never amount to anything like the past CEO of GE, Jack Welch.

JD

This is like Obama giving himself a reach-around. The only way his pet companies can do business is by bailing each other out.

JD

Maybe they will explode.

radicaltruth

yea, you tell me what part of this grand Obama plan isn’t socialism under another name? government administration (not congress) uses taxpayer dollars to subsidize and manipulate companies to do its political bidding and prop up industries that would fail in the natural market, involving pay to play corruption and gangster style tactics to coerce its social engineering agenda upon the nation. the industries and companies become government puppets.

This is not the car people think it is… here is what I have been told. The car charges for 12 hours and gets 40 miles on a charge. If you load the car (max capacity is four adults) there is a depreciable loss of range, the same applies if you run the GPS and the heater. The car has to “sleep” at night in the same place to hook up to a bulky proprietary charger, this in a large European city where real estate is prime. Additionally, on wet roads and cobblestone the car fish tails. My source, a professional chauffeur whose is genuinely proud of his job and the institution he works for, adds that none of the other chauffeurs like the car and do every thing to avoid using the $37K Volt. The recently proposed increase in USG subsidy from $7.5K to $10, that the Volt business model is not doing well. If GM, a USG subsidized company, is going to subsidize the Volt to it employees, dare I ask who pays?

John62232

What a load of garbage. Do you people really feel the Volt is a good car???? An IPhone costs so much because people will pay it. The Volt is over priced because its too expensive to make. If people want one thats fine. But making them buy one is crap. If I want to drive an F150 thats MY right. I wont buy another chevy or dodge untill they repay all of OUR money the Government gave them.

James

Ok so now GE gets back 7500 bucks for each of the 12,000 cars that they will buy at a fleet discount price or maybe 10,000 if Obama has his way so that makes it a pretty sweet deal for someone. Now GE will sell the charging sytems for at least half of those 12,000 and make a little money on that plus it gets the advertizing for free about it’s charging stations.

golfguy

this was in the cards the minute that the facsists took over GM. Don’t forget GE was given stimulus money, for what you say, so that they could prime the pump for a car that was built for ideology and not consumers. let’s also get past the point of calling this an electric car it’s not. Drive a liberal nut job crazy by calling it what it trully is, coal or nuclear powered. Electricity doesn’t grow on trees it’s generated by coal or nuclear or Natural gas.
Here’s something else to ask GE or your local chevy dealer. Ask them if you can charge this car in your garage with the door closed, you can’t because of the toxic fumes coming off the batteries. Ask a dealer if you will still have a warranty for this vehicle’s batteries if you use the fast charge method, you won’t because it kills the battery life by 30-50%. New battery packs are a minimum of $ 6,000.
If anyone believes that anything designed and thought up by some government progressive will work you must be nuts. And if a company goes along with it and goes bancrupt then the public shouldn’t have to bail them out. Looks like that train has already left the station hasn’t it. Good luck when more power plants are shut down and your electric bill will “necessarily skyrocket” then see how cost effective it is BWahahahahahahahaha!

George Chronis

After working for a power company and watching all the crazy things that GE and the government were doing to my former employer I am not surprised by this move. We all will be paying the price for this craziness giving tax credits to GE for each car plus all the subsidies so GM could build these electric generator cars.

Anarcho-Capitalist

The average American drone likely fails to see that both of these companies are simply extensions of the government. Both are on life support from the government. GE has like a half a trillion dollars in debt and was a recipient of bailout money to keep it alive as was GM. I’m not sure if it this resembles Soviet style business-as-usual or fascism. Regardless, it isn’t free market capitalism. Thanks to the mindless taxpayers & slaves the entire racket continues. Electric cars are non-sustainable losers and create more pollution when including manufacturing processes not to mention disposable of toxic, worn-out batteries.

Tonyvegas

For a coal powered car is does surprisingly poorly, bigger carbon foot print – government subsidies is why GE bought them – well got them for free from taxpayers.

Fwyh

Ha! Cronnie capitalism? More like straight out corrupt. Glad my freaking taxes are being well spent… NOT!!!

RobX

So when there is a black out for any length of time, then GE cant even get any where to fix what is broken, good planning. lol

nam-vet6869

I am no fan of GE or GM but, if I am driving a company car in my position then I am going to drive whatever the company furnishes. That is the right of the Company and it also is pretty standard that if you choose to drive your own car it is at your expense. I think there is plenty to investigate both GM and GE for but in this case I am afraid they have the bases covered.

James

I guess GE found something to do with all the money they had left over from not paying taxes.

rbblum

And, no mention of GE’s benefits of receiving a federal subsidy/rebate for each of the Volts purchased? Though the truly revealing question would be whether GE’s decision was based on politics, social concerns, or strictly business.

Wonder whether GE would consider merging with or buying out GM.

DavidW256

GM made a deal with the devil, the UAW and Obama.

In many ways GE is the devil, screwing the American people in the name of whatever crisis structure it can use to conjure control and profit at the hands of government.

If these two companies represent the future of American “capitalism” then, indeed, the glory has departed and the USA is nearing the end of its economic might.

Ironbalut

Reminds me of the old Soviet Union tactics used to force people to do what the politburo dictated to the masses.

Norcalsurfer777

What a joke. This is pathetic. Why don’t you make something that people want instead of forcing them to do anything? Typical leftist mentality. There is NO NO NO NO market for this green crap. Only the weak minded believe in any sorty of climate problem. In a way it’s pretty funny, like everything else the left proposes; it’s amazingly unpopular yet they force it onto people.

Mark Scott

GE is no longer appears to be an American company, nor stands for the same thing America does. Just as most of the “main stream press” is really nothing more than the commnication arm for the Obama Administration, GM and GE are no longer great industrial companies but playgrounds for social engineering. I truly wonder in America will exist as a country in 25 years after all of the damage.

RANDY

CORRUPT UNIONS, CORRUPT POLITICIANS, CORRUPT CORPORATIONS. = A COUNTRY DOOMED TO DESTRUCTION …. THE OBAMANTION , THE GLOBALIST , THE ELITE = THE ENEMY OF FREEDOM AND THE FREE AMERICAN . RISE UP PEOPLE THE END IS NEAR AND WE WILL ONLY HAVE ONE CHANCE TO RECLAIM OUR NATION

John

Just so 0bama can say “See I told you.. Look at how many Chevy Volts are on the road!”. What a clusterfu*k of a president. Go back to Kenya you home wrecker POS.

first they force the taxpayers to pay for these edsels,
then they force entire companies to force their employees to drive em…
all this forcing of this product can only prove the point more strongly that it’s a bust.

The FORCE be with you! or else!

TD

Every time GM sells a volt, the national debt increases by $7500. Let’s hear it for clean energy since the volt is powered by burning coal.

I just love this. When you are made to purchase or when s an employee you are forced to drive one it really shows how much they are afraid of the on coming year. What really is funny is whenever they put up public plug-ins how long are they going to stay up before vandals find out there is something of value in side. If people can tear up a fireplug how long will they stay up? Ever go to stores that have the self checkout stands? Usually half are shut down and the ones that work has so many bugs in them you need to call a clerk more time than not.
Can’t you just see them in the streets of LA or NY City? There are going to have to place an armed guard next to everyone so they don’t get stolen or vandalized. If not the tax payers will foot the bill I’m sure.
One side note; when Obama gets thrown out of office the unemployment rolls are going to skyrocket because all the tsars Obama hired will be out of a job. I can hardly wait. There is no place in this world any of them will ever have a job paying $100,000 .00 a year. It’s going to be something to see when they default on the Volt they bought. Not only will the Obama Motor Company have thousands of Volts to scrap they will have thousands of pre-owned Volts flooding the market too. Only an idiot would purchase a lemon like a Volt.

geronimo

I wonder if the GE employees will be forced to sign an agreement never to comment about their experience with these vehicles? They would make a nice focus group after a year or so, if they could speak freely. But they will probably be subject to a gag order.

Andy

There may not be anything wrong with this deal on the surface. It makes some economic sense. EXCEPT that the only entities involved are connected through a hub in the White House. It smells of a lot of “back-scratching” …collusion. In the free-market system, getting products and services into common use used to be dictated by consumer choice… not by the State and its corporate henchmen. The American taxpayer is being hoodwinked once again. Has anyone thought through the unanticipated consequences of a sudden high increase in electrical energy driven by electric cars should they be sold by the millions? More coal, gas, and nuclear generating stations and their attendant pollution. So what have we gained? Less pollution from gasoline powered vehicles, replaced by more pollution from large scale electrical generation. Electrically-powered vehicles only make sense if they can be charged by other means. It would be nice to believe it could be done by solar-powered electric power generation. Good luck. Then even Solyndra could have been part of this foul deal if they had any luck in making their products practical. Is this progress?

Sandi

As long as obama is in the White House then get use to reading stories like this one. “Forcing” people to do something is what communist do best…

Fong

Ironic, a government own and subsidized company selling to a government subsidized company that don’t pay tax and forcing employees to drive a car GM can’t sell to the general public because nobody wants it. Our tax dollars at work! Clap clap, nice screw job. Thank you sir! May I have another?!

ClearyJ

This has nothing to do with General Electric per se. It has everything to do with countering the charge that General Motors can’t sell Volts to private parties. Since GE is a private party (albeit a shill for Herr Messiah), this will give cover to Obama when Romney tries to remind America that the Volt is a flop – a big Government turd, splattered on the windshield of the American Taxpayer – who’s paying for all this crap in the first place.

D

Obama gives Gm taxpayer stimulus money to build the Volt ….then give GE taxpayer stimulus money to buy the Volt + they get a rebate check of $ 7500.00 for each Volt they buy …which they turn over to the Obama reelection campaign …just the way they do business in Chicago …called the Chicago Way. They don’t see anything wrong …the question is do you?

Allie F.

Jeff Immelt needs to be fired. He has driven GE into the ground – it has lost more than half of its value since he took the helm. While pocketing huge raises (rather than “bonuses”) he has continually cut the dividend to shareholders and decreased the value of the stock! This is just one more stupid ploy that will cost shareholders. Enough.

Such an OUTRAGOUS INJUSTICE of our freedoms!!!! PLEASE SIGN ME UP for a free co. car with all expenses paid!! P.S. can i apply for a job too?

LogHomeFool

Wait til those employees get an extra $40,000 added to their income as compensated income and they need to pay taxes on that income. That free car ain’t so free. Another wolf in sheeps clothing.

Tex Taylor

There isn’t a more corrupt, crony capitalist corporation in the world than GE. But GE knows what side of the bread is buttered.

Jeffrey Immelt’s gross incompetence would have garnered a frogmarch to the curb in almost any other S&P 500 company. His performance has been nothing short of pitiful, and I am ashamed as a one time shareholder, I owned this horrid stock, for more reasons than simply losing money.

But because of ties to Washington and the revenue that ensues from the cronyism, Immelt is safe as long as Obama stays as President. I can guarantee you Immelt is praying Obama is reelected.

Mach1Duck

Let’ see. The government bails out the UAW. The UAW contributes heavely to the election of Obama. Obama appoints the head of GE into a high level government positionn. GE only busy GM Chevy Volts. Makes sense to me. Political Hacks 1, Voters 0.

pepanm

So, GE used the money that they were supposed to pay in taxes to buy the Volts. That really means, ordinary tax payers payed for the Volts. Isn’t that right?

Tomas

Green? My evil gas burner gets on average 32 to 34 miles a gallon. When I park my car, it’s green. As for the Volt, after testing one for a week, the driver got on average 18 miles on the not so green battery before the evil gas engine kicked in. When he parked it, it was no longer green, he had to charge it for 12 hours. It all depends on what the word “green” means.

Dave

I’m amazed at how many idiots are climbing onto the “green” bandwagon. Any basic class in mechanics and/or electrical engineering will tell you that every time you transition from one type of power to another there is a net loss. There is no “net gain” in using electricity UNLESS the electrical power is produced by renewable energy means. We all know the present cost of those options. Every time you plug in a “Volt” to recharge the batteries, you’re using electricity most likely produced “elsewhere” from some form of fossil fuels, unless it is produced by hydro. So the only real or imagined cost-benefit is shifting the pollution that produced the electricity from your area to somewhere else. I have nothing against REAL advancement in science to reduce our dependence on pollution causing energy sources. But to force people to drive a vehicle that in the long run is neither cost-effective nor environmentally friendly is exactly what the people on the left want. What is really needed is to look at the production of a vehicle “cradle to grave”; i.e. to look at the TOTAL cost in materials and dollars and environmental impact from the time the materials are extracted from the earth to produce the automobile, the ACTUAL operating cost and environmental impact of the vehicle while it is being used, its useful life and finally the cost of disposal or recycling, including any environmental impact that these things have. Did I leave anything out? If a lay person such as myself can see and understand all the implications of the above, then why won’t those who claim to be greener than the rest of us admit that, and have true environmental progress with the machines we design and use in everyday life? Better to reduce pollution by reducing the number of SUV’s on the road these spoiled children drive rather than forcingeveryone to use technology that is NOT cost effective economically nor environmentally.

Jeff

GE employees pay 30 dollars a weeks for their fleet vehicles. They aren’t free though less than what the typical car payment would be.

It’s happening ! Our current government has banked on the fact that if folks were out of work long enough, they would settle for anything the government dictated and the statement, “I wish they would give me a car and make me drive it” is exactly what they were banking on. Sounds like you’ve given up on finding a job and are willing to take anything. “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up” ! Jim Valvano

Luke

The Volt car has the equivalent of just under a gallon of gasoline’s worth of energy in its batteries. That’s why it won’t go even 40 miles on a charge, which then takes 8 hours to recharge. Would you buy a car with a 3 1/2 quart gas tank, that then took 8 hours to refuel? Not me, and not most Americans, now or ever.

BobEd

The Volt will go about 300 miles on a tank of gas. I know you are kidding about the size of the gas tank, but one problem the Volt will never have is being stranded due to a dead battery. It’s highway range, even if you didn’t use the 40 mile battery range at all, is not much different from a non-hybrid. If you can’t find a gas station in 300 miles it’s not the cars fault.

Javert Freeman

Will the US government be paying for these vehicles used by GE Healthcare thru tax deductions?

John

WE all including myself believe that company’s have the right to run as they wish with their policies. This is what they wish to do I say more power to them. When the new cars burst into flames they will likewise have to deal with the damages and any injuries that come out of it.

Besides there are not allot of jobs that supply company cars anymore.

gobnait

Ah, must be nice to be so happily oblivious to your government’s relentless efforts to take your choices away from you, not to mention its being in bed with big business. Why isn’t the OWS crowd on this?!

YankeeI

Sleep with the devil and you will always get burned. We all know both Immelt and Obama are corrupt and that GM was handed to the Union. So why is anyone surprised by any of this? All of you supporters of Obama are actively supporting the destruction of this country and will be held responsible for it. Let’s see if you get there

ADM

Only a Dolt would buy a Volt. They are expensive, complex and when the battery dies(if it doesn’t catch fire first), it will cost over ten grand to have it replaced. Even the dealerships don’t want them. These “fleet buys” are the only way the “sales” are being pumped up. It figures the government would finally push it’s bedroom partner to force this stinking pile on it’s employess.

Bob

Good point. If they want true savings, buy clean diesel Vokskwagen TDI’s. They are half the price of a Volt, average 40-50 mpg, and are easy to repair.

Jordan

“Only field engineers are excepted from having to drive a company Volt.” I guess spell check did not catch this error. I believe the author meant exempted not excepted. I guess with a title that is misleading I couldn’t expect a well written article. The problem is not that a company want’s to make it’s fleet “greener” its that both companies are in bed with the politicians. A better question to ask is how much of the cost of these vehicles is the American Taxpayer footing?

EngageGraymatter

Well I guess if there is no market demand, then you “create” an artificial one by mandating people use your product. Then you “subsidize” it with government (i.e. taxpayer) funding. What a joke. If we were serious we would completely transition over to diesel engines in a 10 year period, build 5 refineries across the country, and use coal to liquid technologies (cleaner than traditional diesel or GAS). Once we have broken free from the teat of foreign oil, then we put all those out of work NASA scientist’s to work developing alternative fuel sources (i.e. hydrogen). Look folks it is real simple. It comes down to BTU’s and thermal dynamics. Wind and solar do not provide the energy needed to power an economy as large as ours. You have been lied to and bought it. Also, imagine not having to keep a carrier task for in the Middle East to ensure supply or keep sea lanes open? Plus now we have a secondary market in Europe and they get a stable supply of fuel.

Kahuna

“GM hopped to sell as many as 60,000 Volts . . .” Really? How does anyone sell cars by hopping? I suppose they are hopping mad now because they had to reduce their estimate.

Phil Hansen

With gas prices over $5 in parts of the US right now (not to speak of prices in the future), only a Dolt would not consider buying an all electric car, when they become affordible to the mass market. I’m considering a Nissan Leaf that is affordible when you factor in the savings from not buying gas.

Jsmith

So, taxpayers will be paying $10k for each car GE buys? What a deal!! (sarcasm)

shana

Since the taxpayers have to fund a portion of volt sales, will this mean that we are “helping” ge buy the cars?

Saul

Just a thought. Many high profile tunnels and bridges have a BAN on all elec. vehicles. Check with your homeowners insurance as some will not cover fire losses if you garage an elec. vehicle, others will charge a high premium. Just a thought…

AA

So what you are saying is that GE’s order is sparking new interest in the Volt.

jekyllisland

The Volt has mechanical issues like no other car since the Pinto – in the long run this will cost GE more

Bob

I know that they are quite pricey, but if you want a great electric alternative, check out Tesla Motors, and their Model S series.

BobEd

Ask Telsa what it means if one of their cars “bricks”…what might make that happen, and what they will do to help with the $40,000 battery replacement if it does.

The Volt may be crummy, but it is cheaper and a way better idea that the Telsa…because it can go 300 miles on a tank of good old gas.

Nexialist

Great. Government Electric buying lemons from Government Motors.

lizsalander

Ah, the Chicago way – when the logic fails, just use coercion. (coupled with a “liberal” dose of lying, bullying, intimidation, and union thuggery, all topped off with lots of taxpayer dollars.)

snap

“GE claims to have crunched the numbers and believes that in the long term, this will save the multi-national company big bucks.”
I can’t imagine how a $40,000 car – which will require $6,000 of battery change in 5,6 years – can possibly be cheaper to operate than a $25,000 Prius or Taurus.

Rocky

Awesome- the volt is actually a great car I know people are always slow to adopt something new so this seems like a great idea for ge and gm
I wish i had bought gm stock when i had chance

Apb

You mean, you wish you bought GM stock AFTER the fascist takeover by team Obama…the real stock and bond-holders were screwed. Even then, it’s a relative dud.

Donbch

Never too late to jump in & take a screwing like u never had before. GM has ripped off the buyers for many years & never reimburses the poor dopes who keep on buying their junk. (good example) Converted gas engines to diesels & the flop of 8-6-4 gas engines. The dealers would not allow any of these vehicles on their lots once u bought.
Why havent they paid back their debt to the tax payers ??
Wait till you try to get rid of the Imposters Volt . Wise up America.

liam

Good news! GM stock is cheaper now than when it came out. You didn’t miss out at all! You can even buy more now than you could have then. The best news of all is you can keep buying it in the future at even cheaper prices as it continues its old march toward zero. What a deal! 🙂

whodat1

As a Field Engineer for a competitor company, I couldn’t help but notice that GE has exempted field engineers from this. There is a good reason why. AS an FE, you HAVEto get to a site in a crisis. You HAVE to drive a DEPENDABLE car. Q.E.D.

Pete

Does anyone else see the insanity that has gripped this country? How are we going to be charging the batteries in all of these electric cars when the power grid is already stretched to capacity? We can’t build new nuke or coal fired power plants so what’s the governments plan??? Are we going to start to have rolling brown outs just like in many third world nations because we can’t produce enough electricity?

Just wondering.

David

Nothing like a company in bed with the Obama administration forcing a piece of Government Motors garbage onto the marketplace, using taxpayer dollars to boot. What a horrendous scam.

Don Miguel

Do they come standard with a fire extinguisher?

This is to of the adults, you should know by now, if something is really good, you don’t have to be coerced into buying it. Did people have to be forced to buy an iPad, iPod, iPhone? Nope and they paid a premium to buy and use Apple products. And I bet you won’t see these things cruising past a snowbank or a barrel cactus. Think about that.

Do you want to drive across country in one of these? Yeah, don’t lose that Priceline bookmark.

Ndbprr

Unfortunately people who get company cars get them because they use them for business purposes like sales and customer relations. If they can get to them I doubt it will help either one to be impressed to be squeezed into these pieces of junk.

Vin Bickler

All the “pro” Volt comments seem fake. GE/GM/BO all stink!

Badger40

Hopefully none of those employess have to live anyway or go anywhere that’s really cold.
Bcs your precious Volt will not work very well (can’t go very far on a charge in extreme cold etc.) in such conditions.
Let’s also not forget safety.
Sorry-but a Volt versus a larger sedan? Pickup? SUV? Guess who wins?
And let’s not talk about the environmental hazard (& crazy expense) that those batteries are.
And let’s also not talk about the fact that those batteries don’t last near as long as they tell you they will (10 years?).
And let’s also not talk about how it’s ‘cheaper’ via the taxpayer to buy another Volt than it is to replace those batteries.

Don Mei

Sure its stupid, but they’re a private company providing vehicles for their employees. They are free to do what they want. This is actually a great example of private enterprise doing what government should NOT be doing. If GE can jump start EV sales, and ultimately makes a profit at it by selling millions of charging stations, then we’ll have a great case study of WHY government mandates are not the way to go.

Either way, GE is risking its own money, which is the core concept of any capitalist system.

Don

IMADOLT

For all of you armchair critics of the VOLT, ‘you know not of what you speak.’ Go test drive a VOLT like I did last February, or a least speak to someoe who drives one. I have 11,000 niles on mine – have used 39 gallons of gas. Full recharge (at a cost of $1.38) gives me 36 miles of range, all I need for a day’s driving (works out to an equivalent 86 mpg) . The car is an engineering marvel. Finally after 40 years, a US manufacturer has out-engineered European and Asian companies. America should be celebrating the achievement, not demeaning it. VOLT’s performance: the car accelerates with awesome silent power, turns like it’s on rails, has sleek exterior sports car lines and look and a comfortable interior with the best digital displays and computer graphics I have ever seen in a car. Compring this car to a Chevy CRUZ is a joke. I am a business owner (Republican at that) with no connection to GM. My decision to buy a VOLT had to do with economics, not politics. It is the best, most fun car I have ever owned. (PS – I would gladly pay $10,000 for a replacemnet battery at the end of the 8-year battry unconditional warranty if I had to to keep the car rolling.for another 8 years)

Ari Colin

Another Volt driver here. I concur on your sentiments. I have 4,000 miles on mine and have use less than 4 gallons of gasoline. The estimated 40 mile range is perfect for me. I have a 40.3 mile commute and cannot charge at work. If I keep my speed down, I can make the commute 100% electric.

This is the best car I have ever owned and I am saving $200 / month on fuel. The higher the gas prices go, the more I save. I find excuses all the time to go for a drive as it is such a fun car to drive. You get spoiled very quickly in the total silence of the drive, and the instant torque of the acceleration.

Maybe I am missing something. Could you please explain how the economics possibly make sense? You can buy an equivalently equiped gas powered car that gets 40 mpg for at least $10,000 less than a Volt. Driving 36 miles per day you are AT MOST saving $1.50 a day in the Volt. At that rate, it would take 20 YEARS for their to be any savings. This doesn’t even account for the $10,000 dollar battery replacement, which you would need at least 2 of in 20 years.

BobEd

Not sure about the exact savings once the price of electricity is factored in, but Consumer Reports rates the Volt at a gas equivalent of 99 MPG using average electricity cost.. Comparing the Volt to an economy car, the Hyundai Elantra, for a 35 mile daily commute, the cost for fuel of the Volt is $1.13, and for the Hyundai Elantra it is $3.93. As the miles driven goes up, and if you don’t charge the Volt, the fuel cost of a 90 mile trip is, Volt, $8.93, Elantra, $11.79. On even longer trips the Elantra will eventually be a little cheaper due to it’s 40 MPG rating vs. the Volts 37. However, on a daily commute of 40 miles or so you would use very little to no gas with the Volt. If gas prices spike to the predicted $6.00 gallon the cost savings would, of course, be a lot more and the Volt makes even more sense.
As for battery cost, there is an 8 year, 100,000 mile factory warranty on the batteries.
The Volt is still too expensive and I would not buy one, but it’s not nearly as bad as the hatred for the current regime in DC and for GE are making it seem, (and I detest the regime also), based on comments here.
Hope I helped.

Apb

Quit wasting time on the intarwebz, Immelt. Don’t you have work to do on your Chinese aircraft company?

Don

i just hope they are held to same standard (ha ha ) that we are, they should be only allowed to redeem one tax credit per company , but this is why odumbo wanted to bump tax rebate to 10000 per veh

Jim

Do a cradle-to-grave environmental impact analysis of any “green” hybrid. The manufacturing and disposal process for the batteries alone make a hybrid much worse than a standard internal combustion vehicle. Understand also that over the life of a hybrid, you will have to replace those EXPENSIVE batteries at least once causing yet more impact. Why is America ignoring the highly efficient, low-sulfur diesel sedans that are available in Europe? They get 50+ miles per gallon. Is that not good enough?

Those who drive a hybrid under the delusion of “saving the environment” are simply fools with more money than good sense.

Joe Blow

Of course GE is going to push electric cars. They are General ELECTRIC after all. It means charging stations built all over the place which will tax the electric systems which will allow them to sell more electric infrastructure components to cities.

Frank Conner

I worked for GE in the olden days when it was General Electric, not Government Electric; when it acted like a business and not a part of a wheel-and-deal presidential administration, and when it still treated its employees like people, under the remnants of Bulwarism. That was before Neutron Jack Welch, and now Jeffrey Immelt. I’m sure glad I don’t work there now.

jon

some people will never be happy. i am thrilled that someone is buying 12000 cars made in the usa.. i don’t care what you think of it politically. For all the right wingers who think the muslim are taking over buy a volt and stop buying their oil … for all the left wingers who cry about the environment and union jobs in the usa buy a volt. Put up or shut up.

Cogito

Government Motors and Governmnet Enterprise are merely following our Leaders style of rule by edict.

Tht Big Guy

The $7500 tax credit is now $10000… and GE did not annouce the deal untill that credit was increased a couple weeks ago… talk about corporate welfare!

Dooky

I would NOT own anything GM.
They stole money from honest bond-holders and gave away the company to the unions. Obama and Immelt are despicable subhuman thieves. eFF them both and anything they are involved in.

bigRooster

They are also ordering those books Obama didn’t write.

RichieRich

The Volt is a Gas Powered Vehicle with a 40 mile electric reserve. Get it right.. Quit making it something it’s not..
I, like the majority of Americans, hate to have their intelligence insulted by all these tree hugging liberal elites that think they know what’s good for all of us. If it wasn’t for Dear Leader running interference for his cronies, this thing would have been the 21st century AMC Pacer.

Ari Colin

Actually you have it backwards. It is an electric vehicle with an estimated 40 mile range. In the case that the battery is depleted, the gas engine charges the battery. The car is always propelled by the battery, the engine simply charges the battery to extend the range. That’s why they call it an Extended Range Electric Vehicle.

40 miles works fine for most people. So, if that doesn’t work out, the rest of the drive will be at 35mpg. If you trip is less than 40 miles, then you driver using pure electric. In my Volt I am getting over 850mpg.

nate

Can you see the pandering in this move by GE .the volt has a range of 40 miles and then needs a tiny slow gas engine to get home . Obama should not be mandating what we drive.out in 2012 for sure.Bye -Bye dipstick!

BobEd

The tiny gas engine you speak of is not to “get home”. It performs as well as most family sedans with just the gas engine. Battery charged or not 0-60 in about 9 seconds….not a hot rod but quick enough for most folks. It is rated at 37 MPG using the gas engine to provide electricity for the electric motor. Electric motors reach peak torque instantly giving the car a zippy feeling, whether or not the batteries are charged.

If you are going to say this is a bad idea, try a different reason…like, even after the rebate, it is too expensive, or it won’t pull a 5,000 lb trailer. Also, premium gas is recommended for the tiny engine.

CommonSense

This article isn’t about energy or plug in cars so much as it’s about corruption and Marxist utopia. Eric Immelt and Obama are practically lovers. With all the money Immelt gave to Obama’s campaign in 2008 and all the tax breaks Obama gave G.E., this is obviously nothing but a political pay back. Gas prices are rising much faster than overall inflation, and overall inflation is rising faster because of gas prices. Obama’s high gas prices are right on schedule, just as he promised before he was elected. Next will be electricity prices, just as he promised – see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqHL404zhcU. While Obama continues to transfer our national wealth into pixie dust and unicorns, the rest of us will be glad to vote his commie *ss out this November.

Joanne

This makes GE able to take advantage of the government subsidy of now “10 thousand” dollars per car. They are probably taking a write off as well as a capitol loss. How business in this America gets done! I wonder if their employees can use the car as an excuse when they are late to work, claiming that it ran out of power? This is the new America but I wonder who will subsidize the rest of us?

ItsPhysics

All this talk of “clean energy” from electric cars is BS .
A battery driven car still needs to get its energy from some source.
That source is a coal driven or nuclear power plant.
The battery doesn’t produce energy it simply stores it for later use.
“Energy can not be created or destroyed.” It’s transferred.
Gas -> Heat ->Motion (kinetic)
There is no “renewable” energy.

lizsalander

I agree – I love how the Volt defenders ignore the part where fossil fuels are used to generate the electricity they recharge their cars with; they love to claim some mythical moral high ground because they get their car’s energy from an outlet instead of a pump – there is a net loss of usable energy each time it changes form, folks – so burning that fossil fuel at the power plant is no different from gas at the pump – plus you have some really toxic batteries to dump into the environmental waste stream when you are done with the car.

Xena and Jada’s mom

I think this is a great idea. If this car is as terrible as some of the reviews have indicated, who better to report it than the employees who are forced to drive it? If this car is terrible, they are going to resent it.

And if this car is such a wonderful car, then yes, it will save the company money.

I’m eager to hear how this all turns out.

newjerseybt

Obama may have to force another mandate on the American people to either pay a fine and/or face prison time for not buying another product. If the Supreme Courst rules that the Healthcare mandate is Constitutional, an Obama mandate forcing the people to buy a certain car would also be Constitutional.

Some Guy

Meh, it’s not like GE has any employees left in America, anyways.

Brian Cohen

Let them have “BRICKS”.

dareisay

Electric costs:

Due to Obama’s EPA, our electric company (AEP) is shutting down 5 plants, over 600 workers will lose their jobs and never be rehired…..all to convert from coal fired to gas fired.

In 2009/2010 AEP got two small rate increases.

Now AEP tells us, that to pay for these conversions, our rates will increase 35% to 45%!

Many won’t be able to heat their homes in the winter, let alone plug a car in to use up more electric!!

P.S. To those that get these company cars, do not park them in your attached garage!

Alan D

GE would save much more money by buying any of the dependable hybrids on the market. The new Camry Hybrid is a far better choice than the flammable Volt. So is the Ford Fusion Hybrid. It would have been far wiser of GE to make deals with Ford and with Toyota that included several Prius models along with the Camry Hybrid.

Ron Burgandy

See Alan wiser is not the issue; it’s how to prop up the Volt by coercion then claim product success. GE and Immelt are just talking one for the team.

M. Kalen

It;s wonderful GE purchased 12,000 volts, they need another tax deduction after that whopping tax bill last year (Zero), bet they are applying for a rebate because the tax payer of America have to much moo la.

BOB

And I suppose GE will also get the $10,000/vehicle bonus that barry promised as of last week ?
Also, does GE still refuse to hire US citizens in engineering positions, in favor of H1B’s ?

Craig Zinn

Why can’t the free market decide this volt technology is not efficient or green. These incentives wouldn’t be needed if the car was commercially acceptable. The car get 13 miles to a gallon after the ten miles it runs on electric made from burning coal or oil. Get your heads out of the Stimulus package cloud and see the Prius and other true market proven technologies do what the volt can’t. Deliver green technology to the marketplace without the political paybacks to the democratic machine who only takes care of their friends and not the people who have to live under the oppressive Obama mandates on how to live in this country. Save the earth drive anything you feel green in. Prius Lexus hybrids Honda Acura hybrids Mercedes hybrids are all cleaner and don’t need Obama,a or his cronies to line their green wallets

Ron Burgandy

Ah more corny capitalism in play, a la Obama-style.

The vehicle is so good it can’t sell itself- even when propped upf, and only costs up to 250,000 to produce in taxpyaer subsidies. Order today and we’ll throw in a heated rear trunk lid to keep your hands warm when you’re pushing it on those cold days.

Mark

We are on the Titanic and the band keeps on playing. U.S.A. R.I.P. It was nice while it lasted.

RightStuff

I’m doing everything I can to avoid purchasing anything having to do with GE. They have sucked up to Barack Obama way too much, when they could have bucked him, and could have been a solution to the problem of socialist ideology.

Scott K

This crony capatilism is what is putting America in jeopardy. We need every true American to stop purchasing products by GE. It is very simple. Do not purchase their products. This company needs to fold and be replaced by an American company who cares about USA and not China. Americans need to wake up. Tell your kids about what is going on, so their future can be strong. We must start being vocal about corrupt companies, and stop purchasing their crap.

Common sense

Its obvious many previous commenters are GM or GE employees, or Democrats. What about the enormous waste of taxpayer money to prop up this silly house of cards. Electric Hybrids are not cost effective. VW/Audi is about to change the game with their version called KERS, for Kinetic Energy Recovery System. A mechanical flywheel instead of expensive dirty dangerous chemical batteries. Simple and elegant. And should be very cost effective.

JIm

Green energy is a scam designed to destroy our petroleum based economy. In order to make “green energy”, which is environmentally some of the worst, marketable, governments around the world have subsidized production of equipment subsidized operational costs and mandated purchase of “Green Power” to create market.

The Chevy Volt is 41000 dollars the conventionally powered Chevy Cruze is 19000 dollars. After the 7500 dollar subsidy of our money is applied there is still 14500 dollar price differential. If you drive 40 miles a day on the battery at 1.50 dollars per charge you will save @ 1.50 per day at 3.00 a gallon @ 534 dollars a year @4272 dollars for the 8 year warranted life of the battery. At that time you can buy a new battery for 10000 dollars. NOT LIKELY so the volt cost you 10228 dollars more to drive over that 8 year period. If you calculate lost opportunity say you place the 14500 dollars in a 3% interest bearing account you would have 18427.59 YES LETS ALL BUY A VOLT.

Now just in case some troll comes along and suggest that energy prices will go up and the savings will multiply like rabbits.

1. One third of the cost of building a car is energy cost so the cost of both cars go up as well as the differential in price.

2. If fuel prices go up so does the price of charging the vehicle.

3. If fuel prices go up the cost of rare earths will go up for legitimate use in efficient industrial motors and generators. (Hard to speculate exact effects so these costs are not reflected in the following analysis)

In order for the volt to be cost effective fuel prices would have to be large enough to outpace both the initial difference in operation price and the subsequent increase in manufacturing cost. In other words approximately 15 dollars a gal @ 550 dollar a barrel oil in 2010 dollars. In that case since all things are energy based there would be similar across the board increase in all things. Rioting in the streets Starvation and Armageddon would follow so GO GREEN lets necessarily raise those energy prices.

You are right China will profit only because we are stupid enough to buy “technologically backward” dirty technology in an artificial market that we will not be able to participate in other then bag holders.

gary allan

It has started, Obama now starts telling us what to drive. Will his liberal supporters get waivers? I doubt it.

dennisl59

Since the price of electricity is going to go sky high(on purpose and by design by the Federal Government), who will be able to afford to charge the Government Motors POS? Answer?: The One(1) Percent.

Dpk65

You can “FORCE” me to drive a Volt any time you want. Talk about kicking a gift horse in the mouth!

I say this is a good trend…next we need to mandate everyone in the US get a job so we can have 0% unemployment…next we mandate everyone buy a house so everyone is a home owner…next mandate that every home must own a gun…agreed this is a private company and they can do what they want…but clearly the ultimate plan here is control if you don’t see that, please don’t vote for Barry O come November

dan m

Where have all the good editors gone… I’m tired of reading stories with typos in them. Just about every other one has a least one typo in it.
Here it was:
GM had hopped to sell as many as 60,000 Volts in 2012
=What are they, bunnies?
It’s a twitter world of shortcuts and typos that show the lack of fortitude this country needs to succeed!

ron

“GM had hopped to sell as many as 60,000 Volts in 2012.”

It looks as though they are ‘hopped up about this travesty of a car. This is payback to the mighty ‘O’.

gary allan

Well to all you liberals who voted for Hope and Change, yout finally get to finall go green and drive a Volts, along with eating your peas. You lucky devils, having someone to make all your choices for you.

JM

Rising gas prices. GM and GE. They all have one thing in common. The Obama administration. Isn’t it odd that all of a sudden with gas prices nearing $5 , the blocking of the pipeline, exportation to China, GE’s tax exemption and GM bailout, and the truth misrepresented regarding global warming, and Obamas failing energy policy, they, are once again , just like healthcare, are forcing this scam down the throats of the American people. Even the President of the Petro. Industry could explain why gas prices have risen. He rebuked that fact that because of the seasonally warm winter with supply and demand down domestically, that prices should be down as well.
And for those who think that GM is giving away free Volts to their employees, think again. Employees will still be taxed annually on an estimated value. Kinda like the cash for clunkers. It is considered income earned at the end of the year.
Again, this is a complete scam by the federal government , Chicago style politics at the federal level, to force their agenda through. For those libs and dems that want government to tell you when to eat, sleep , and crap, this is the next step to government owning you and your freedom taken away.

This is exactly what is expected when a Marxist Government takes hold of two Giant companies.
The U.S. citizens own as much of G.E., by way of them NOT paying taxes as they do G.M.. I guess that we now can say
Government Electric is assisting Government Motors in their bid to remain solvent. 12000 Volts is about all GM will sell this year.
I wonder, will The Government be touting a huge spike in sales with this deal? Will they really try to spin this as a surge to the sales of a wind-up car that really is more comfortable on the golf course than it is on the highway?
We are being raked over the coals, and if WE DO NOT stop this stupidity, We The People will soon forget what it is like to have free choice, free thought, freedom to go where we like and own what we like and keep the fruits of our own hard work (for those that don’t work, you can ignore the last one).

Jeff

“…field engineers are excepted”. Exempted. Not excepted.

Juan1

The key word in the title of the article is “Forced”. We are being lead down a path toward Marxism through soft tyranny where Politicians choose the winners. That is why there is so much rhetoric lately about, “fairness, 1%, green, reb “.

It pays to be a friend of Obama. You are capitalized at about $140 billion dollars. You cut 30,000 jobs. You get a $23 Billion dollar taxpayer bailout. You pay no taxes. And you pay Immelt $21.5 million in compensation.

Immelt should pay Obama’s salary since his is paid by the taxpayer.

Jennifer

What if you live in an apartment or a condo and can’t have a charging station?

GE has to pay Obama back for not paying taxes. However, I do think it would be good for meter-readers and rural mailmen. If they can run on batteries maybe the dogs in the home won’t hear them coming.

Matthew

Can you say collusion? From the “most transparent” administration ever. The only way you can sell these things is by force.

springer

At what point is all the Obama criticisms of corportations ruining politics going to get thrown back in his face? I bet GE is getting one heck of kick-back from Obama for buying those pieces of crap. They shold look at all that turbines that GE sold that got government subsidies too. 40,000 per car is what those volts retail. You can buy 2 nicely loaded Ford Focus for that that get close to 40 MPG with a standard gas motor.

This guy is the dirtiest of all politicians. It is Chicago politics at its best.

Savannah Guy

For those who missed the point… like most of those who have responded so far… the thrust of the article is about political perversion of the free market. The Volt is a government financed project, from a partly government owned “private” company, which has failed in the open market so far. (Those unexplained fires, while the damned things are sitting still, didn’t help it’s image one bit.) Now, we have the crony capitalist GE group trying to prop up the Volt, and corner the charging station market as well. Peachy, just peachy…

Having more tax lawyers than the average European country has soldiers in their armies, GE pays no U.S. corporate taxes. Those who whine that this doesn’t matter [as all taxes are passed on to the public as costs] somehow seem to have overly convenient memories. What if Microsoft paid zero taxes? What would they say, then? What if a Republican candidate proposed that… since our Lefty friends say corporate taxes don’t matter… what if the Republican proposed that we slash U.S. corporate taxes to zero, in an effort to lure GE’s money (amongst others) back to the USA? Can you IMAGINE what these whackos would being screaming about then?

Bottom line: either Green energy can compete in the open market, or it cannot. So far, it cannot… as in, does the name “Solyndra” ring any bells?

Now, maybe, one day… maybe… Green energy can compete. When/if it does, that’s fine. But until then, could we at least have some honesty, intellectual and otherwise?

For those who want to buy a Volt, fine, go buy one. For those who don’t, why is it that it’s okay to force us into doing so? And if it’s okay to do that, is it also okay, for, say, the NRA to FORCE you to buy guns? Is it okay for the______ to FORCE you to buy ________?

Asking those questions serves to answer them.

Stop the perversion of the marketplace, end the Nanny-State-Knows-Best mentality. Nanny knows nothing, and by the way, Nanny is dying before your eyes all over Europe. Why rush to join Nanny in that?

john

This is called FACISM!!!!!!!!! Every socialist and communist regime has imposed manditory purchases of large ticket items.This is normal procedure for controlling the population. Welcome to Obama’s fundamental transition team of Facists!!!!!!

I’m frustrated by writers who can not SPELL……this just reflects the low level of teaching.

onemad

They make billions in the us, pay no tax, then buy the heavily US taxpayer subsidised Volt form Government Motors. Hmmm.

mule

I’m sorry, but I do not get what the big deal is. GE is buying volts. GE is not forcing employees to buy volts. Who cares? It’s better than purchasing foreign cars, sending more jobs overseas, hiring more lawyers to not have to pay taxes on billions & billions in profit – are you really complaining that GE is purchasing american cars for it’s employees to use?

GE is a shining example of crony capitalism, that is not debatable. Imelt spoons Obama before it’s bed time, yet he continues to send jobs & factories overseas while not paying taxes for what would be the equivalent of 10’s of thousands of average earners income taxes. There are plenty of reasons to hate them, this just isnt one of them, sorry.

JH

A few comments posted here suggest that field engineers have been exempted from the mandatory Volt roll out because of reliability concerns. That is not true. The reason is simply that the cargo capacity of the Volt is inadequate for field service, which involves hauling tools and parts to customer sites. The field engineers are to be migrated to electric vehicles when a suitable size vehicle becomes available.

MTSNJ

Good time to buy a tow truck to tow these pieces of crap back to the outlet to get recharged after driving the whole 40 miles they get.

anon

This is such a joke article it isn’t funny.

GE intends to sell vehicle chargers as part of its business. To get their workforce familiar with their product plans, they need to have employees drive electric vehicles.

This is just a cheap opportunity to stoke the auto bailout outrage again so the people keep forgetting the financial sector, continuing bailout.

Paulee

How can anyone possibly vote for this guy again. He is doing exactly what he said he would do. He said he would put the coal industry out of business. He has shut down all coal fired power plants. He said, “Under my administration electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket” and they are. Are some of you people that dumb that you do not see what this evil man is doing to this country? He is circumventing Congress at every turn, the EPA is destroying the economy with anti- business, job killing regulations, not to mention ramming a monstrous, evil health care bill down our throats, etc., ad nauseam. Gas will soon be at $6 a gallon. Electricity rates are soaring. Unemployment back up to 9 percent, and you want four more years of this Nut? Don’t worry about what will happen to him. The MSM will hire him as a singer on one of the entertainment shows. Better yet, give him a fiddle.

Frank Knitti

General Electric pays no taxes. General electric gets a windfall of taxpayer subsidies in the form of rebates. The Volt is consumer flop as nobody is buying them. GE is being bribed by Obama using taxpayer money in order to try to hide the fact that the consumer doesn’t want a Volt and it is just another failure of poor government investment. The Washinton Post had a story last week showing how 5 Obama staffers had personal interest in 21 green energy companies being funded by the Obama Administration. in the mean time gas prices, being paid by people who can’t afford the Volt but are forced to help subsidize GE volts, are headed for the highest levels ever. This is crony captialism a win win for Obama and GE at taxpayer expense.

Cincinnatus

GM and GE are corrupt – both companies are supported by the socilist in the white house who is taking my money to make his friends rich.

Ken

Keep up the Cronny Capitolism GE and GM and it won’t be long and you will go the way of Solyndra and Beacon Power.

Gerry

Make them an offer they can’t refuse….. it’s the Chicago way…..

Biif Baxter

I hope the next administration opens an investigation into the practices, subsidies and corporate involvement of GE and its top execs.
Their involvement directly with the Obama administration harkens back to the Krupp family’s involvement with the Nazis in WWII.

Patient A

Cost to operate a Chevy Volt

Eric Bolling (Fox Business Channel’s Follow the Money) test drove the Chevy Volt at the invitation of General Motors.

For four days in a row, the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine.
Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran on the battery. So, the range including the 9 gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh battery is approximately 270 miles. It will take you 4 1/2 hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph. Then add 10 hours to charge the battery and you have a total trip time of 14.5 hours. In a typical road trip your average speed (including charging time) would be 20 mph.

According to General Motors, the Volt battery hold 16 kwh of electricity. It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery.
The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned so I looked up what I pay for electricity.
I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh.
16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery.
$18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile to operate the Volt using the battery.

Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline-only engine that gets 32 mpg.
$3.19 per gallon divided by 32 mpg = $0.10 per mile.

The gasoline powered car cost about $15,000 while the Volt costs $46,000.

GE, GM and anybody else that purchases one of these tin-cans with a battery pack has fallen for the biggest dupe in history. Its a trojan horse in Volt clothing. It gets snuck into your garage at night and in the morning you find your wallet under attack.

BTW–the company ‘memo’ likely was sent out because they dont know what to do with all the Volts sitting on the lots. These things are selling like chocolate covered dung beetles.

Jim

Patient A – Double check your electricity cost. I pay $.16/kWh including all the local taxes and fees. That translates into $.103/mile electricity cost.
There are many other costs seldom mentioned, for example to install a home charging station. In older homes the main service panel needs to be upgraded to handle a high current charger. That involves equipment purchases, installation labor costs, permits, fees and often a main feed line replacement that the power company absorbs… meaning all other users pay the cost. The only way electric cars are cost effective is through subsidies, either from government (taxpayers) or by bumming power from your friends or work at the end of your trip. The effort and costs (to the consumer) put into designing clean gasoline engines in the last 40 years allows a gasoline vehicle to run more pollution free than the coal plants that keep an electric car running. Imagine everyone going home at night in a big city and hooking up to the grid to draw 28 Amps at 220V. The power demand would be staggering.

Justin Case

After a few years we’ll find out what the true cost of driving a Dolt is. Can you say “Bad back”.

Bob Jamieson

Your cost per kWh looks way high. Mine was 12 cents per kWh on my last bill, and I thought that was plenty high enough.

Are any of you aware that GE owns 49 percent of the NBC network. That includes MSNBC and a wjhole bunch of other cable channels…as well as local network affiliates. With the election coming up do you think MAYBE they’ll be “fair and balanced”. What candidate promotion would be in their best interest? Connect the dots.

hueychief

What has happened to our once great country?
We are in deep,deep trouble.

Liberty4all

I suppose GEs CEO will be issued a Volt for his company car?

AZ Schumi

Nope…a Tesla that will turn into a “brick”.
What self-respecting 1%-er would be seen in a puny Volt?

Steve

Pretty expensive marshmallow roaster

Tom

Nobody wants a volt except for political tools who are not free thinkers. As an engineer, I KNOW that Electric car technology IS NOT feasible…you cant teach politicians this basic fact…they are dead stump stupid. Simply put if you plan on those long drives, make plans with electric cars to make them EVEN longer, as when you run out of Juice a mere humdred or so miles down the road you MUST PULL over for at least another hour to recharge…oh yeah…so a normal gasoline powered 5 hour road trip from say NYC to NH will take about 9 hours …and not because of traffic.

This FACT in turn will double the cost of shipping goods commercially if the technology ever gets rammed down the commercial sectors throats. By definition people who vote for these idiots who push this sort of false energy solution are that themselves…idiots.

DJH

That’s the thing about the liberal agenda – particularly with regard to oil/gas/transport; The technology is not there yet and wont be for some time but they believe punishing you and everyone else, forcing bad solutions that ultimately produce worse results, etc. will bring about the technology faster. If astronomical fuel prices, utter devastation of the economy and indeed the cost of everything skyrocketing is a side effect that hurts millions of Americans then so be it.

Yet more proof that liberals base intelligence on ideology and not actual intelligence, viable solutions and long term gains.

Charlie McCuen

So many hundreds of millions obama steered into labor unions, primarily to shore up their retirement benefits, were total abuse of both TARP and the Stimulus Act. How many jobs does deposting money into a retirement account create?? Obama is undoubtedly the biggest liar-in-chief this country has even known. He gets on the stage and says he’s freed up land for drilling oil, but with the other side of his mouth he’s got EPA creating more and more obstacles, delaying permits, everything they can do to REDUCE oil production. If he had been honest and truly reduced the regulatory burden on oil when he first came into office, we would have milions more barrels wer week in the system. He swore he would eliminate lobbyists from the White House and then hired- and is continuing to hire- lobbyists from he pet companies. He gave money to Solyndra and other green-energy firms that could have gone to actual job-creators, instead of capital destroyers. He’s sworn to go after guns ‘under the radar’, he says he’s defending the border but suing everybody that actually tries. He says he wants tp create jobs but he stops Boeing from creating those jobs in SC, and many many many other instances of out & out lies. I don’t care if you’re diehard socialist just like him, you cannot believe a word the man says.

Sgman

Brute force and subsidizing are the main methods of getting people to buy this POS vehicle.

Voluble

When your president is a used car salesman it is not surprising when he tries to sell you a lemon at an overly inflated price.
This country has survived a lot of wars and disasters but I will be surprised if we can survive Obama. Those things all did damage to America but none of them did damage to what America is like this clown has done.

OldOllie

Couldn’t you have found another way to make your point without slandering used car salesmen?

I am so disgusted with Obama and his union cohorts such as the UAW and SEIU that I will never buy another US branded vehicle made by the UAW. Nor will I buy anything else made by US union labor if I can help it. Unions may have had a purpose in the beginning, but now they are mostly about redistribution of wealth and moving this country closer and closer to collectivism.

charles

Only one fuel does not require a refinery, distillery or battery/generating plant. That is natural gas (methane).

Out of the ground, landfill or digester pond and into the tank. Then you drive your car, truck or bus with no pollution and BTW you don’t have to change the oil either.

Methane is the EASIEST fuel to create too. Fill a digester tank with any organic waste and you get it. No grain, no distillation, no batteries, no nothin.

The only fuel pumped direct to 60% of US homes.
The only fuel you can actually make at home in a septic tank etc.

It’s a company provided car, why wouldn’t the company have a right to choose the vehicle? Quit complaining and drive your own car if you don’t like or go work for someone else. GM forced many drivers of their company cars to drive Aztecs and no one complained about that.

Dave

Of course, GE pays no taxes on a 4 Billion dollar profit, gets incredible government contracts and so, it buys thousands of these fire starting, uncrashworthy turds for their employees. More Obama cronism at work. Its sucks.

WilliamPenn

Only a matter of time before Comrade Obama issues a Mandate (his preferred way of ruling) ordering all Americans into Volts. Time for revolution, Citizens! Send that commie back to Kenya in November!

shawn

Seems to me the GE is acting within the authority of the free market. They buy cars for their employees, therefore they decide what they drive. It is a good way to market the car also. For all those government haters and haters of regulation… the free market will naturally decrease personal liberties without government influence. they act (or are supposed to act) as a referee to the free market.

2Anglico

Since GM sold less than 700 Volts in January, they probably won’t sell 10,000 this year. Nobody wants to buy JUNK!

JB

Our glorious leader Obama, has commanded GE to force the workers to drive a substandard piece of junk! And for those who don’t obey severe punishment awaits! Welcome to the New World Order, Work hard for the glory of Mother Russia oh I mean the czar, my mistake again I mean Obama.
For those loyal party members who voted for the leader, wake the f:(k up!!!

Dave

Yup… somebody had to buy these overpriced White Elephants. If GE and a few other large Obama cronies didn’t buy a bunch they would have sold about 500 of these fire startiing turds. What bothers me the most is the $7500 taxpayer funded “rebate” or “bribe” included for normal people to buy one of these things. Imagine if it wasn’t there. they would have sold 10 of these things. At $35K they are still way overpriced.

In the Obama world, style trumps substance and facts don’t matter. They don’t matter because the MSM is utterly in the tank for Obama…. taking its marching orders from the George Sorros’ Media Matters…Never mind the facts… just declare victory and move on to the next lie. Wind, solar and battery will never be a viable replacement for fossil fuel energy. Hydrogen and nuclear yes..but not solar and wind…never we have a inept Marxist in the WH people… get used to it… our country is dying as his Labor Department lies about the unemployment numbers and he ignores the crushing debt.

tom beebe st louis

Crony capitalism. This may be a reason why so many republicans have reservations about Romney. He brags about coming “from the private sector”, yet this is the sort of abuse of power that the elitist leadership represents. We must throw out the ruling class, and hopefully it can be done at the polls and not in the streets. Who do yo believe is outside this conspiracy? Palin? Paul? Ryan? Cantor? Certainly not Romney, Santorum or Gingrich.

Socialist engineering of society to support the state. Down with fascism.

Harpotoo

Fascism!

Dennis

It’s all about shortening your leash, limiting your individual movement, making owning a car so much of a hassel that you opt for “Public Transportation” becoming even more dependent on government. It’s the big picture. Freedom of mobility is one thing that makes this country so great. And it’s all a on going LIE. This country isn’t out of Oil. Carter just turned off the valves and started the Dept of Energy We could start by turning the pumps back on that were shut down in the 80’s.

stonedome

“Any employees who opt out of the Volt program will not be compensated for their expenses.” economic terrorism by the communists who have infiltrated our corporations. the ceo has ordered it in lockstep with the obama regime…we, the people, must resist the dear leader and his comrades

Troy

They don’t have to compensate anyone for refusing to use what is provided to them. If your boss gives you a hammer, and you decide that you don’t like it so you buy your own hammer, your boss isn’t going to reimburse you for it. GE buys the cars for their employees to use. If the employee refuses to use the equipment provided to him, he isn’t going to be subsidized for purchasing his own.

Tim Gabz

The bailout bought GM time. The administration’s about turn and left everyone but the Union biting the bullet when they are very much part of the problem. The problem still exists and GM is still long term bankrupt. Their figures are current, created by the bailout. Their long term unsecured liabilities are dilly. They squandered their European sympathy and much around the world yanking foreign governments around who trying to avoid job losses by finding buyers then reneging. Their international aggressive Chev branding over Opel etc is making traditional German and British GM buyers look for alternatives. Vauxhaul and Opel are effectively corporate shells if GM is holding the patents etc.

If my company would buy me a car and it’s fuel I would be interested in the Volt. Buying one for myself er-no and being forced to buy one for myself would get me job hunting. The Volt so much is out of my psychology as an economist. The Volt is a competitor in the auto special olympics, where both the Prius and the Volt are for retards. Bastardized technology that the buyer will be marooned with in the long term. There are some real advances in electrical transportation that are still lagging behind petro-diesel advances. However the Nissan Leaf is closest to the mark, and should there be a power net then it would fare ok-ish (price). The Volt lacks this leading stance.

I have enjoyed GM products for nearly 30 years. These shenanigans are upsetting my strong Opel tendencies.

The old fashioned payoff. Not much has changed since the days of the Chicago gangsters of the 20’s and 30’s. Only now the thugs are in the government. Not just the WH, but in the state and local as well.
Will GE compensate the employee’s families when the employee dies in one of these death traps?

Justin Case

Perhaps a new name for the Volt would be more appropriate and justified. How about “Lada”, “Trabant” or “Yugo”.

mcru

I hope GE pays full price and does not use the rebates to save the taxpayers $90,000,000.00.

The MaD HaCkER

Well I could not make it into the office this week, My car would not start 😉

mrsharfer

The very fact that GE is endorsing this car would make me run the other way! Have you bought a GE product lately? Bar none they put out the WORST products going. They need expensive repair four to one over every other brand combined. This is according to repair shops across the country. Perhaps if jeffrey immelt weren’t so busy fellating the obamination he could pay attention to his own failures.

Fuzzlenutter

I wonder if the employees will be creating a pool to bet on who gets barbecued in their Volt first?

marc

just like a banana republic. the govt. stole the money of the bondholders with the help of a corrupt judge. america became the beacon on planet earth by the rule of law and private property rights both of which are going away.
marc

So the tax payer is expected to again assist funding a weathly company like GE who has paid no taxes. Yet the tax payer is expected to support their fleet purchase by $10,000 per vehicle. It is amazing how Obama’s redistribution of wealth always seems to take from the tax payer and give to weathly organizations. The very organizations that fund the Democratic party. The redistrubution of wealth that is occuring is not from the rich to the poor. It is from the tax payer to Obama’s friends and families. They are using our tax dollars against the citizen.

Apeon

What a SHOCK!

Kirk

Do people understand that these are really coal powered cars, right? Most electricy production in the US is by coal. What we are doing here is creating a larger demand for coal. Until the US builds more nuclear power stations, all we are doing is displaceing the soruce of polution, creating a larger carbon footprint and stressing electrical power plants. Do you know where your electrical power comes from?

Immelt and Obama are Mafia/Marxist Dons dividing up the take from the stupid Americans. I’d love to see a picture of Immelt’s house after a Volt burns it down. He’d really be green then! ….living in a tent.

I was watching the old John Wayne / Jimmy Stewart movie ” The man who shot Liberty Valance” the other night and it strikes me that the relationship between Obama’s administration and big business is a lot like the relationship between the cattle ranchers and their hired guns.

SerfCityHereWeCome

This can’t possibly backfire on Goobermint Motors and especially General Emetic badly enough to suit me.

SerfCityHereWeCome

Hey, how about forcing them to buy up all of those “bricked” Teslas while you’re at it.

terry smith

I guess the end of the Volt is near.

You won’t be able to get parts, or get them serviced without paying an arm and a leg.

They are using them as company cars. No big deal and although the cars are awful, it’s the company’s decision to make their employees drive awful cars if they want to use a company car. I’d like to see the execs drive this.

ACF

OH MY GOD

NOT A COMPANY CAR

THE HORROR
I wish I had the luxury of bitching about the free wheels my employer gave to me to use to get around. I’d be furious.

This is a true outrage. I mean, unlike millions of other Americans who get the luxury of picking what cars they’ll drive to work and having the privilege of paying out of pocket for them and their own fuel, GE employees are forced…nay, HELD AT GUNPOINT in these cars.

I think the NAACP and the ACLU should be involved, somehow. This is neoconservativenazizionistidisestablismentararianism at its finest.

GarandFan

You just know it’s a great car when people are MANDATED to drive it. Not only that, but the service engineers, the folks who actually have to drive places and fix things – they get to use normal transportation. Guess customers get upset when engineers are no-shows.

EyesWideOpen

This obscene circle of corruption is 100% subsidised and funded by we the taxpayers. BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars in bailouts and “stimulus” money have been dumped into this corrupt crony club of Obama, GM, the unions, the “green” scamers, GE, MSNBC, and back to Obama.

The Duker

For all of you that proved you were not racist by voting for Obama. Now vote against him to prove your not STUPID!

The smartest thing to do about the Volt would be to force every left wing liberal democrap to drive one. Perhaps that would be the jolt required to get these jar heads back to reality. They canb suffer the fruits of their votes and stupidity, not us. Incidently, no GE or GM products ever again under my roof or in my driveway.

JoJo Tway

I will never buy another Chevy. The day that
Socialist company is gone will be great.
When Obama goes they will go. Thank the lord.
Toyota is a great Co. Tundra built right here.
Block and all.
Also:
Chevy is casting blocks In Mexico. All bad blocks.

maryo

Obama to Immelt: “Hey Jeff, just one more thing.”
Immelt to Obama: “Yes, my liege, what do you desire?”
Obama to Immelt: “Well, Jeff, if you want to continue to receive the protection of my administration, that is, protection from taxes and criticism, you will buy 10,000 Volts from my company, General Motors.”
immelt to Obama: “Of course, most honored one.”
Obama to Immelt: “Oh, and Jeff, we will be asking some more favors of you during the next few years. If you value your protected status, you will continue to do as you are told.”
Immelt to Obama: “Why, yes, whatever you ask will be granted to you. Now about helping us to raise the share price so that we don’t appear to be such losers here at GE.”
Obama to Immelt: “Just wait your turn Jeff. We’ll get to you soon enough.”

Guido

My family, friends, neighbors, and myself will never, ever, ever, purchase another GE product, EVER!!! Any product or service that have the Union Label on it is put back on the shelf. To the President of GE, anyone can accept hand outs from the government and their company will appear to succeed. You Sir, on the other hand have sold your soul to the Devil. I have never been so ashamed of someone who has taken a GREAT American company and turned it into crap, you have done this to GE and to every employee. Someday you will get off your knees, pull your head out of President OVOMIT’S rear and find out just what most American’s think of you. They are laughing behind your back daily.

DJH

I stopped supporting GE completely in recent years and will look for an alternative so long as there is one, and immelt is the epitome of a political hack and utter scum!
Having said that, it’s up to them what their employees drive during official duties, if however they’re forcing their employees into buying Volt’s for personal use and refuse to reimburse legitimate expenses because you refuse to comply with an idiotic and wholly inappropriate demand by your employer then they’ll suffer for it in the long run as they lose good talent to companies who aren’t trying to follow and ideological agenda.

The problem with forced VOLTS is not the car- it’s how American taxpayer money has had to subsidize it- and then you have obama’s buddy at GE, who paid no taxes on billions in profit, buyin Volts in bulk to help out his buddy- who runs the IRS. While obama has owned GM he allowed them to build a plant in Mexico- gave Mexicans jobs- as for the oil the Volts save, he gave Brazil billions to drill for oil, who then sold it to China. Our buddy Canada is selling their pipeline oil to China. Obama says he’s opened all this land to drilling, but then he has thee EPA and all his other attack-dog agencies regulate the oil business OUT of business. the tangled web of money-laundering by obama, immelt and Soros is disgusting, but very successful- mostly because of two things, 1) many don’t understand it and 2) many don’t care as oong as they hahve their subsidized housing, food stamps (48%) and/or any of the other 20-30 duplicative govt progrgams used to buy votes. Obama is a socialist/marxist, he has said so in the past, and unless you want to end up taking the govt bus to your govt job and eat at the govt cafeteria, you’d better vote his lying- self- out of office.

Mike Jefferson

GE, GM, and Obama epitomize the sorry state that this nation is in today. As crony capitalists who enrich themselves while enslaving the American people, Obama and Co. – the trade unionists, lobbyists, etc.- are destroying this country. It is time that we send these clowns back to the Chicago circus from whence they came and reclaim our blessed nation.

Blaidd_Drwg

Sounds to me as though GE is simply planning on switching to Chevy Volts for use as it official company car. They aren’t forcing employees to buy anything. Maybe GM gave them a deal on the cars. It’s not as though they are going to be sold to anybody else. As I am not a shareholder in either company (other than the US taxpayers’ ownership of GM), I really don’t care all that much.

Guido

I wonder how far up the food chain that directive reaches? Think all the big shots will turn in their Eurotrash status-sedans for Volts? Not a whole lot of room in a Volt for hauling those egos.

What a dumb-ass mandate – forcing your captive employees to buy a certain car. This is political correct coersion.
Political Correct: the belief you can pick-up a tu*d by the clean end.

Concerned Mom of 5

This shows the lengths that our corrupt President will accede… co-opting the lackluster Jeffrey Immelt to further weakens GE stock, to bail out GM. Taxpayers and shareholders are hated classes in the current D.C. regime.

strobey

A GE susidiary in China makes the batteries that are in the Volts. It’s all a ploy to inflate a product that is struggling and one that our President has put on life-support with a lot of taxpayer money. It’s the start of a trend, Corporate to Corporate bail-outs. It’s the kind of thing that happens in command economies like ours. I’m sure Immelt and GE will get additional tax breaks for their Compassionate Capitalism, but wait they don’t have to worry about taxes now do they?

Maybe, if we’re lucky, they’ll just make us all buy EV’s in the same manner as they will make us all buy Healthcare. I’m sure they’re is a “public good” argument that could be dusted off and used to rationalize that law. I am using sarcasim here, for all you Sheldon Coopers out there. 🙂

Ripped Off Tax Payer

GE Jobs Czar sends American jobs to China while Government Motors and Chrysler gave it’s union bosses their cronies bonuses of 7k each while they won’t repay all of the bailout money that they got to the US Tax Payers.
Failed Solyndra then payed off it’s private investors before the “so-called” secured Gov Tax Payers who have lost over 550 million dollars and then today, they are giving out bonuses to the remaining cleanup employees.
And Fannie and Freddie Mac did the same thing with the Tax Payers money paying bonuses to the former CEO. Franklin Raines of Chicago, IL while still paying his legal fees to defend him in Criminal / Civil court actions.
Obama has allowed this to happen and he is responsible for this blatant Fraud and Political Corruption.
Any Wonder why this Country is going Broke?
Tell Obama that his Cronie Capitalism Must Stop!
And Vote him Out of Office to save what’s left of this Country.

Larry Pierson

Do the math. By the time the electrical energy gets to the drive wheel of the Volt, the overall efficiencies are fairly close to that of gasoline powered cars. The most efficient gas turbines are 60%, the generator is 98%, the step up transformer is 98%, transmission lines are about 95%, step down transformers (two stages) are each about 98%, the AC to DC charger is about 85%, the batteries are 75%, the DC motor is 90% efficient, and the transmission and differential is about 95% efficient. Mutliply 0.6 * 0.98 * 0.98 * 0.95 * 0.98 *0.98 * 0.85 * 0.75 * 0.90 * 0.95 = 28.6% of the energy content of the fuel entering the power station makes it to the wheel of the Volt.

Not very impressive.

Tom Moss

Eletric, Eletric, Eletric!!!
Why do I never hear about NGV
There is a home filling system Called PHILL and
we have an abundance of clean natural gas. I fill my Honda
for less than $2.00 a gallon.

Steve Pa

Talk about an agenda. This is step one down a dangerous path that will ruin the American economy for good. Step 2 will be to require all GE employees to ride bicycles or wind and solar powered scooters! You laugh. But you have no idea how terribly destructive this will turn out to be. And the sad part is that many will sign on to this agenda in the name of saving the planet. And they will be sorely disppointed and betrayed in the years to come when they find out the whole global warming/climate change agenda was a hoax and they sacrificed their lives and the future of the nation for a lie! Sad that so many Americans today have become so gullible.

Give them a free Volt and then let them continue to smoke dope and drink 40s on their lunch hour. Business as usual.

Lawyers Guns & Money

GM can give as many Volts away a sit pleases considering that the American tax payer is footing the bill for that too.Not surprising that they have to force it on their employees.They quite likely have no desire to burn to death

OldOllie

There’s no such thing as “crony capitalism!” It’s an oxymoron like “drunken sobriety,” “promiscuous virginity,” or “stupid intelligence.” You can have cronyism OR you can have capitalism, but you can NEVER have both at the same time! This is just another way for dishonest liberals to smear the name of capitalism to justify their imposition of totalitarian socialism, which, by the way, is typified by cronyism.

warmachine

VOLT = Very Old Lousy Technology…….I’d rather give birth to a flaming porcupine than drive this abomination.

OldOllie

Next, GM will be forcing it’s employees to by GE dishwashers which, by the way, leak like incontinent old ladies at an Englebert Humperdink concert.

Sam M

A college friend’s husband works for a division of GE and they had their company car replaced by a Volt.
At least twice she has experienced an incredibly frightening experience : while traveling north of 65 mph the Volt has lost ALL power – no power brakes or steering, when she finally got car stopped in the middle of the highway there was not enough power to roll down a window, unlock a door or put the HAZARDS on!!
Her husband is afraid to complain – luckily none of their three daughters were in the car. Hopefully they won’t be next time either.

alansanmateo

myth

people should be liable for such lies

Don in Virginia

For forty years, I bought GE. Now you know why I by Samsung appliances and Phillips light bulb. GE is making a “support the corrupt Obama Administration and agenda”. But, not on my dime. Boycott GE!

Bob Jamieson

I’d love to buy my own Volt. Unfortunately, the pay and “benefits” are so bad at GE that (as an MBA with nine years here) all I can afford is my seventeen-year-old econobox.

Perry

Typical tyranical nature of progressive liberal democrats. While shifting money to their friends (GE to GM) they screw the little guy by taking away their options.

It would not suprise me if the tyrant Obama comes out and and offers a tax break to buy the volt then, in turn, raises the tax on other car/truck purchases. Thus leaving the little guy with one option.

I got the following e-mail from a friend about the VOLT.
Eric Bolling test drove the Chevy Volt at the invitation of General Motors.
For four days in a row, the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles before
the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine.
Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran on the battery.
So, the range including the 9 gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh battery is
approximately 270 miles. It will take you 4 1/2 hours to drive 270 miles at 60
mph. Then add 10 hours to charge the battery and you have a total trip time of
14.5 hours. In a typical road trip your average speed (including charging time)
would be 20 mph.
According to General Motors, the Volt battery holds 16 kwh of electricity. It
takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery.

The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned so I looked
up what I pay for electricity.

I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh.

16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery.

$18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile to operate the Volt using
the battery.

Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline engine only that gets 32 mpg.

$3.19 per gallon divided by 32 mpg = $0.10 per mile.

The gasoline powered car costs about $15,000 while the Volt costs $46,000.

So Obama wants us to pay 3 times as much for a car that costs more that 7 time
as much to run and takes 3 times as long to drive across country.

REALy ! How brilliant

James214

I agree with everyone here that it definitely is A problem that GM still exists because of taxpayer money and the fact that the UAW and the US gov’t now own the company.

It’s not THE problem though.

THE problem is that capitalism was once again stomped on by socialism in the US DIRECTLY because the US has no defined system of morals. (Unless you count bad morals.)

GM and GE are simple cases of how GREED destroys capitalism.

If you were a Ford shareholder during the time of the GM bailout, you SHOULD have probably made a nice mint when GM went down. Instead, socialism won…greed won, and competition lost.

When socialism wins, America loses.

Typical American

OMG the wolds coming to an end GE is replacing there COMPANY cars with Volts Republicans please save us all LOL, I think this is great news infact I wish my company car a Volt honest to God people need to find a new hobby.

bobsig

Yeah, when your company car catches fire and burns your house down we Democrats can hire more firemen and make the economy boom….or was that my company car?

DirtyDave777

Just more Ocommie Cronyism. Ge can tell its employees what company cars to drive.
I want to know Just Whose gonna get stuck paying for all these Turkeys in the long run ? The car is a piece of junk and will never withstand Fleet use.

Rank

I do not have a burning desire to even drive a Volt. I find what Obama, GE and GM have done to their employees, and share holders revolting!

alansanmateo

LOL – I know, because letting the company and all the suppliers fail would have been so much better for all those employees that you care so much about.
LOL

Rick

The only American made car I will ever consider is a Ford. They did not take taxpayer money. It is that simple.

Carl

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Ford didn’t take money from that particular bailout package, but it wasn’t a matter of principle and certainly not a matter of Ford being a stable entity.

Ford was lucky to have signed a $6-billion loan from the feds (initially intended for major renovations so they could try building better cars) just before the crash and official “bailout”. They also asked the Feds to leave them open to borrowing up to $9 billion if they did end up needing it, thought they did not actually take it at that time.

If the crash had happened a few years earlier, or any other time when Ford was already suffering billions in losses under their own power, and they have not already gotten a huge government coddling, they most definitely would have been willing to take an official bailout just like everyone else.

John M

I buy nothing from either of these sellouts.

guy

I dont know why this article makes this sound negative. GE is being responsible here and replacing their vehicle fleet with cars that are better for the environment.

Bound4er

Better how?

alansanmateo

some of you guys are really out to lunch on all of this

first, Solar. I agree that ALL costs should be included with solar. But what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. How about including all costs for using gasoline? Emissions are higher with gasoline, even when you internalize the emissions from the power plants. In addition, what % of our military exists simply to protect the oil industry? Even if you only say 1%, that $ number must be included in your analysis. And it NEVER is, because the folks who own OilCo stock ()all of us) just can’t handle the truth. (of course, oil is still required even for the greenest of autos, as they all require lots of plastic parts, which are from oil)

and you guys who think the GM bondholders would have done fine in a GM bankruptcy are just high. Leave the dope smoking to the hippies. A viable GM is better for the U.S. of A. than a bankrupt GM and all of its suppliers. We don’t live in your utopia. We live in reality. Which sucks, frequently.

and you guys who go on and on about the risk of the batteries, just get over it. You don’t know what you are talking about. Please do some REAL research and stop just parroting what you read on nonsense websites.

and you guys who talk about the car “bricking” – step away from the crack pipe before posting. The Volt has a GASOLINE engine in it. As long as there is gasoline in the tank, the car is gonna run. DUH. The car doesn’t STOP when the battery is empty. Again, RESEARCH is good for your brain!!

These sorts of issues are comnplex enough, without having to wade through you “Obama is a Marxist” dopes. Why can’t you guys just stick to FACTS and not get your panties all twisted becuase of politics. Really love the elitist anti-public-school crap, however. Nice touch. But I thought folks like you didn’t like “elites.” Very confusing to talk to hypocrites….

Bubbalama

I pity the fools who work for GE Healthcare. The Volt is a piece of crap from a piece of crap company. We own part of the most outdated inefficient car company in America.
The spirit of Yugo looms large over the heads of every GM employee. Someday in the near future, we can only hope Obama is indicted for his malfeasance in “saving” GM for his cronies and the UAW thugawump leadership.

Well, they are the largest purchaser of the Volt. Jeff Imelt tried to do Obama a favor and prop up the sales for him. Now, probably after months of building charging stations, its time for GE to be the frontrunner in the green revolution. While we watch that, they move more jobs to China.

B Jones

CEO Jeffrey Immelt is a prime adviser to the Obama Regime.
Five will get you ten that Obama will tout the minor increase in Volt sales in his campaign. All the while, gas prices will continue to increase.

Mike

Will GE reimburse employees for electrical cost like they do for gasoline cost? Is that how it saves GE money – buy using the employees electric. How much juice in KWs does a Volt need for regular use?

GE is continuing to bribe our Liberal elected Government representatives by funding an expensive boon-dongle, the cost of which they will pass on to their consumers (we, the taxpayers).
Regardless of their lies, it is about as cost effective as Obama’s investment (actually a political payback) as his “Green Energy” companies.
Solution: Boycott all GE products. Also boycott Obama and all Democrats this November.

jb

A Chevy Volt is not actually economical. If you look at what the purchase price of $47,000 applied to a used truck and a new Volt, it’s obvious.

$17,000 financed for used Kia Sorento + 171,420 miles of transportation. ($30,000 for gasoline at $3.50/gallon and 20mpg.)

I could buy the used car and drive it for 171 thousand miles for what it would cost to buy a Volt and walk.

mmilesll

This is just great. Healthcare costs aren’t high enough and the Volt costs the taxpayers $250,000 plus per car in subsidies, wonder what else the nobama crowd has in mind for us. One company doesn’t pay taxes and the other owes the taxpayers billions-that will never be repaid. Sure makes me want four more years of this crap.

For now, I’ll give President Obama’s good buddy Mr. Immelt a pass on this one. If he chooses to make this endeavor a reputable – key word, reputable – experiment, we can learn and advance the Volt’s technology for the good of all.

Rick

Only an idiot would see anything wrong with this, and his name is Matt Drudge.

chloe24

i wouldn’t drive one if they were free. they cost .75 per mile as opposed to .20 a mile for a gasoline vehicle.

Bob Onnit

Nice that all blue collar GM workers are getting a $7000.00 bonus this year, paid for by the taxpayers and paid out before GM repays their loan. And of course all of those workers are union goons who will vote for Obama. So, their votes were bought with taxpayer money. And how about the $250K in taxpayer money that it cost for every Volt sold ? Reminds me of how Obama’s administration paid about $22,000 for every cash for clunkers rebate a few years ago.
This is why big government is a failure and why Democrats are liars, thieves and weasels. Time for some b*stards to go to jail.

SirGareth

No, we cannot put these people in prison. However sooner or later a lynch mob will show these fascists some real justice.

Wumingren

You can also bet that GE will install the charging stations in all the closest rows of parking slots to the buildings, thus ensuring a further penalty for those who refuse to drive the Volt. The slots with the charging stations will be reserved for Volts Only, with an exemption granted for vehicles sporting “Handicapped” placards or license plates. I do believe that public parking lots will also expand the number of slots available for Volts Only, installing charging stations for them. You know how all those “Handicapped” slots form an empty “no car zone” next to buildings? Just wait until the first ten rows are reserve for Volts. Everyone else will have to park in some parking lot annex and walk a quarter of a mile or pay to take a shuttle bus. Just you wait and see: fines will be enforced on those who park non Volts in Volt Only parking slots.

Osamas Pajamas

Let’s hook-up Immelt and OhBummer to one of these and zap ’em good — and then we can call ’em the “Chevy Jolt!”

Bob T

NO MORE GM or GE. Recently bought a $2000 GE frig ——- Sooo Sorry —- Never Again

Bet if Obozo had bonds in GM he wouldn’t have allowed the bankruptcy laws to be overturned to help his buddies, but that is just another joke, our clown in chief has played on the American people, who no longer seem to be laughing so much.

As to GM being profitable, I saw that the stock value is less than the IPO, I have heard that they got favorable tax treatment, and that they did to labor what other companies do, they cut the benefits to make the company look better.

Smoke and mirrors a stock in trade for Obozo, our clown in chief, who promised us the most transparent administration. Another joke, from this clown.

Anyone who voluntarily buys a product from either GE or GM is a traitor to the USA. There is simply no other way of putting it. I will NEVER again buy anything from these scheming Fascist “corporations”

David

Wow Loen….you sure got schooled didn’t you? I just wonder if you are utterly ignorant of the facts, have the attention span and memory of a gnat or just utterly and shamelessly dishonest?

Sam M

Just heard from my friend (whose husband works for division of GE and has a Volt) who just returned from picking up her Volt at the dealership.
The problem? (this time) a flat tire. Oh, it’s not that she won’t change a flat, it’s that the Volt DOES NOT COME WITH A SPARE TIRE!

alansanmateo

yeah, I bet the Volt is the ONLY car that doesn’t come with a spare….

I wonder if you guys realize how silly you sound.

Bruce Kramer, M.D.

Oh Come On Folks…

I think it is great idea that unionized GM workers be forced to buy The VOLT…
Then again- I think companies like GM who are in bed with Obama should also mandate that their employees get the “enema” they deserve…

SharpShtik

This is GE paying Democrats politicians back for taxpayer wealth redistribution by propping up another taxpayer/investor wealth redistribution fiasco (GM) and Democrats’ “green” (actually less black and far more expensive) energy policies. Third Way socialism where government and business leaders conspire to serve national socialist wealth redistribution goals at the expense of taxpayers, ratepayers and investors. Same thing happened with insurers agreeing to Obamacare, knowing that they would receive billions in increased premiums, but would not have to provide the benefits because they know it will be struck down as unconstitutional. Government industry run by Democrats is America’s #1 enemy.

alansanmateo

seems like most of you people really hate America

remember how much it bothered you guys when the hippies sounded like they hated America? You are worse than all of them combined.

SharpShtik

We are loyal to America. It is you socialists and communists d/b/a Democrats obsessed with “fundamentally transforming” the America you hate so much who are traitors with no loyalty to America as defined by its consitution. We all prefer to buy American, but we are very angry at being forced by government to redistribute our wealth to socialist and communist Democrats such as overcompensated government employees and other union labor that destroys private enterprise. Democrats’ ideas are so irrational, corrupt and financially retarded that the only way they can implement them is by force of government.

alansanmateo

Who are you talking about? I have over $2M in retirement. I’ve worked in the private sector my entire working life. Unlikely that I am a commie. Reality sucks, doesn’t it.

dee

These guys don’t sound silly when they are leveling the Obama Administration, GE and GM with facts. Take your
little putdown alanaanmateo somewhere else where emotional liberlism rules like the DNC site or the WH site. They will love you there.

Point two: the controlling interests at GM just voted to cancel retirement benefits of all white collar workers but the union thugs/employees will continue to earn a pension.

This whole marxist forced takeover of two car companies stinks to high heaven. I’m glad people see this for what is is.

alansanmateo

boo frickin hoo – can’t take the heat, eh? LOL

for some reason you guys have your panties in such a twist over Obama that you can’t keep your thoughts strraight on any of this

you guys think you are experts on the costs of the Volt, yet you can’t even stomach including the DOD costs associated with keeping gas-burners on the road. WHY? Why can’t you be truthful? What is so hard about telling the TRUTH?

Weird.

I don’t go to websites to be with people who “love” me. Maybe you do because your mommy raised you wrong.

By the way, many of us REALISTS are not LIBTARDS. And you wonderr why the GOP is dying. You homphobic, red-baiting losers have killed the GOP, opening the door for midgets like Ron Paul and Sacntimonium. Guess who elected Obummer? YOU DID, by being so out of touch with the values of 99% of all Americans. NICE WORK!!

by the way, is there such a thing as “emotional liberalism”? I’ve never heard the term. Was that supposed to be an insult? Maybe if I knew what it meant……

ChuckBB

I guess white collar employees should form unions. Oh well, some have, like doctors, dentists, lawyers, etc. They call them professional associations (very ritzy), but they spend a lot of time lobbying to keep their rates high, and make sure no one can practice wiithout joining them and paying dues.

adk

it is amazing how the numbers do not have to add up while the american taxpayer is paying the cost of crony capitalism while democrats hold the presidency. somebody with jr. high math skills can calculate the real amortised value of a chevy volt and see there is no advantage.

alansanmateo

good idea. Now go look for the costs that AREN’T included in your analsys of gasoline cars

like our frickin MILITARY

oh, I forgot – it’s verbotten to say that the DOD exists to keep the oil flowing. My bad.

We care about the liberty of the people of Afghanistan and Iraq

LOL

There isn’t a person on this website that gives one FIG about those people.

oh yeah, WMDs!! WMDs!!!

Osamas Pajamas

Change the name of this critter from “Chevy Volt” to “OhBummerMobile” — or maybe just to “Chevy Joke.”

it would have been AWESOME if GM had failed while the GOP was on watch

Ha!

Weird how you people would applaud the failure of an American manufacturing company, all because you think you are loyal to some utopian (“FANTASY-WORLD”) concepts of how an economy should work

thankfully there are people with balls and spines who live in REALITY and who can make unpopular decisions and who aren’t afraid of your nonsense

ChuckBB

If the GOP had been in charge they would have saved GM too. However, nothing Obama does passes the GOP’s muster, and they are locked into “no”.

alansanmateo

the GOP hates GM
the GOP hates banks
the GOP hates the Commander in Chief

Where did the good old GOP go??? They INVENTED croney capitalism!

the GOP used to love American manufacturing jobs. Used to be that the GOP hated it when the government DIDN’T help manufacturers. How far the stupid have fallen.

I can remember when GOP laoyalist would wring their hands if China were winning on a manufacturing issue. Now they don’t even care. So much for the GOP trying to make America stronger.
Nope, this is NOT your daddy’s GOP, that is for sure.

ChuckBB

Get a job at a Coca Cola bottling plant and get caught drinking Pepsi and see what happens.

Sure Give me a Volt, my house is fully insured and I’d like a new one. CAR-B-QUE!!!

alansanmateo

far riskier to park a gasoline-powered vehicle in your garage than an electric one

at least, that’s what the DATA says

but you KNEW that…..

Jerry Tierney

Sorry Loen. You were not paying attention. Obama took the GM Bond Holders for a ride, took their equity and gave most of it to the auto workers union. Machine Gun Kelly and Dillinger were pussy cats in comparison.
Jerry

notluf trebor

Don’t know what “crony capitalism’ is? Now you do. Both the “restructuring” and this deal are. steamboat

Mike Powers

Don’t cry for me, Argentina.

Anyone getting a corporate car benefit shouldn’t complain no matter what car they are “forced” to drive. The damn thing is paid for at little to no expense to the employee. Call it what you want between GE and GM.

Gary

So, what is the issue?…With gas predicted to hit $5.00 a gallon in a few months…there will be a lot more people driving a Volt….or should be!

Cold War Warrior

21st century “Edsel…………………..”

tom portele

I think it is comic that the engineers do not have to use the volt. I would get a kick out of watching a $200 an hour paid engineer twiddle his fingers while his car charges. The wrecker services should be pretty content with this, when all the poorly planned trips to the “field” start making them money in towing, out of juice, volts.

alansanmateo

ohmiGOD, are you a MAROON?

the Volt has a GASOLINE engine in it

WTF, people???? Is this the “Nincompoops Club”?

How much brain damage to I need to suffer before I can be a member? Holy CRAP!

sopwith

The democrats are burning their bridges. Who would ever invest in a US auto company after this? The unions can now negate contracts in spite of direct prohibition of this in the constitution. The only contracts I have now are for precious metals delivered to my home.

CousinEddie

It’s GE’s perogative to throw their money at bad investments.

AngryGnat

And the underhanded government screwing of the shareholder is reason number 2 why I won’t buy a GM car. The number 1 reason is the UAW. Unions have outlived their usefulness — except to the thuggish bosses. They sure don’t help the middle class any more.

Allen Miller

Well I had enough reasons not to buy a chevy Volt, but now I have another one. Anytime a company forces employees to do anything that supports their political ambitions, its wrong and should be stopped. Even if its free.

Thy Obamessiah

So let it be written.

So let it be done.

Travis

I am sure GE will get paid a tax credit to buy each car. Tax credit x 12,000 cars = $$$$
They already pay zero taxes now and im sure they will even get a tax check back from his best friend Obama.

Look at chinas electric cars polluting worse than gas so stop the ”green energy” frauds. We pay $250k for every volt sold and see $50k batteries in Tesla that turn to ”bricks” if the charge runs out. Compare the Nissan leaf and stop the fraud. How can a car replace a minivan or others with this small sedan that has no headroom with a small trunk. Screw GE and tax that rich company conspiring with Obama and sending gasoline through the roof for their crooked plans. Yes Obama and gang are Huey Long Socialists with the same old Share Our Wealth plan where Everbodys a King just like before. We have a a ”King” without any clothes as the menace he and his Social Democrats friends truly are. In Huey’s plan from the 30’s it was $1M per person and $5 M a family even back then. To get a car, one would ne allowed to steal from the rich and doubt it’s going to sell many Volts. It’s a bad deal so now GE forces America to buy their crap.

asfdda

And watch them get hurt by possible fire hazard!

WorksAtGE

I work at GE, I would love to have a company provided Volt!
I see a lot of people ranting and raving about this, but you know what, we can do with our profits whatever we please.

A friend of mine who also works at GE has one of these, and it’s a sweet deal. He gets a free car, and he travels back and from his house to the office without spending a cent on foreign oil. The car is nice, comfortable, has a great iPhone app to manage it and its super silent.

A lot of you are just jealous, we’re hiring BTW so I recommend that instead of hating you brush up your resumes and work at a kick ass innovative company like GE as we do. 🙂

tom portele

I hate you. You are everything that is wrong with America.

JWood

GE has 12 thousand people driving company cars. Something wrong here.

Mkurbo

If you can’t sell them and the market won’t buy them…
..no problem, just force them on people ! Obama Motors is a joke, Obama is a bigger joke and the whole “green” agenda is a crime against this country.

how much were you guys complaining about “croney capitalism” during Dubya’s reign?

[crickets]

yeah, I thought so.

Buy the Volt or not. Your choice. But people who slander companies should be held liable. And people who receive $ benefit for posting on websites should be required to disclose this or face criminal liability.

notalib

My goodness, what happened to you? Where is your faith in free speech and the 1st Amendment? We are free to criticize anything we like.
My opinion and only my opinion, the Volt is a product of GM, supported by GE and his supporter, BHO. A loser of a leader and President, GE, smarter then he, recognizing an opportunity to make a huge profit. A good opportunity for GE, a piss poor option for America.
BHO is a total loser, GE is winning on the back of the taxpayer and GM has a product that sucks that is being promoted by BHO, the loser, and GE, the winner.
Simple

Anyone know where I can buy a “Would You Buy A Used Volt From This Man?” t-shirt? Post-Nixon folk may not understand this question but they probably never heard of George Santayana or his most famous quote “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” .

While it is a sad day when a company that makes billions of dollars per year is allowed to pay $0 in federal taxes, I don’t understand the outrage at GE and not the Congress that allowed the corporations and lobbyists to create the loopholes that GE took advantage of?

Wait – you don’t think there is outrage at Congress? Also, just because there is a loophole, that doesn’t mean you have to take it. No one is FORCING GE (or Warren Buffet, that jerk) to pay less taxes, they kick and scream and fight and hire lawyers, lobbyists, and accountants in order to JUSTIFY their non-payment. Get it?

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